Criminal Law

Why might police need misconduct insurance?

Posted on February 18, 2009
Austin attorney Kiele Linroth Pace has a couple of thematically linked posts on the blog Austin Justice: The first one pointed to a Statesman story about Austin police officers buying misconduct insurance for $17 per month that pays their wages if they're suspended for cause (the police union is looking for a group rate)...

Ideas for good corrections bills

Posted on February 18, 2009
A staffer recently asked me for bill suggestions that might go through the House Corrections Committee, so I offered several ideas, none fully developed into bill language, but all relatively simple to draft. Upon reflection, I added a couple of more to the list and submit them here for readers' consideration...

"Turning Crack Dealers into Chief Executives"

Posted on February 17, 2009
Check out a flattering profile from BBC on the Texas-based Prison Entrepreneurship program and its founder Catherine Rohr.This is a program worthy of some of that new discretionary grant funding that's going to be coming Governor Perry's way!

Should Presiding CCA Judge Sharon Keller be Impeached?

Posted on February 17, 2009
Rep. Lon Burnam of Fort Worth, a member of the Texas House of Representatives and perhaps that body's most liberal member, has filed a resolution, HR 480, which amount to articles of impeachment to remove from office Presiding Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Sharon Keller, a jurist who openly declares herself "pro-prosecution," thumbs her nose at innocence claims, and who was the subject of a complaint filed with the Commission on Judicial Misconduct signed by 130 attorneys...

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Movie 'Writ Writer' to be screened at Texas capitol: How could the Lege help writ writers help innocent people get out of prison?

Posted on February 16, 2009
Quite a few of exonerated clients of (my employers at) the Innocence Project of Texas , most of whom have been freed based on DNA evidence years or decades after their original conviction, were ironically labeled "writ abusers" by the courts for their frequent, post-conviction habeas corpus appeals challenging their final conviction...

Tools for bloggers tracking the Texas Lege and reasons why they should

Posted on February 16, 2009
With the 81st Texas legislative session full upon us, I wanted to point readers (and especially, readers with blogs) to free online tools available for tracking bills at the Texas Legislature.Once the legislative session gets going, you can get most of the information you need to track what's happening (if not always as quickly as you'd like it) from the capitol website, including the House and Senate websites, which collectively are so robust and useful I consider them a true state treasure...

Cell phone trafficking in Texas prisons

Posted on February 15, 2009
Mike Ward at the Austin Statesman has an excellent piece this morning describing in detail how investigators believe cell phones and other contraband were smuggled onto Texas death row ("Texas prison cell phone smuggling blamed on inmate rings," Feb. 15):Instead of the phone being smuggled by a single corrupt guard, as originally thought, investigators now say it and dozens of others might have been put in the hands of Texas' worst killers by an intricate network of supporters and their families who used code words, fake names, money transfers, prearranged drop sites and even a secret compartment at the bottom of a garbage can to get the phones inside what is supposed to be the most secure part of Texas' prison system...

When did rape become just a civil rights violation?

Posted on February 15, 2009
Via the Carnival Against Sexual Violence and Female Impersonator, we get more information about Montague County Sheriff Bill Keating who allegedly sexually assaulted a female informant, threatening her with jail if she did not perform oral sex and act as his snitch...

Calumny and Innocence

Posted on February 15, 2009
Yesterday Kathy and I visited the Blanton Art Museum, and I was particularly pleased to learn of this 16th century engraving by Giorgio Ghisi depicting a famous scene from ancient Greek art and literature - the Calumny of Apelles. According to the Museum's website:Apelles was the most famous painter in ancient Greece...

Flawed recruitment, retention harming TYC morale

Posted on February 15, 2009
A retired TYC training specialist and current McLennan Community College juvenile corrections teacher, Mike Miller, offered up a guest column in the Waco Tribune-Herald yesterday ("Gritty challenges at TYC") declaring that recruitment and retention of quality staff at TYC remains the agency's central shortcoming...

Graffiti-related odds and ends

Posted on February 15, 2009
Several interesting graffiti-related items recently came to my attention:Check out the photo blog ATX Graffiti for some visually stunning graffiti along with more mundane street graff.The city of Fort Worth says it's reached the end of its rope with an enforcement-only approach to graffiti, and will try "art therapy to students who are in the juvenile probation program" and more public murals to combat graff...

What law enforcement money was included in final stimulus plan?

Posted on February 14, 2009
Well, despite my most sincere urgings, Congress included a boost to the federal Byrne grant program in its just passed stimulus package. A friend from the prosecutors' camp forwarded the list which included a surprising twist - adding "national, regional, and local non-profit organizations" to the list of eligible grantees for $225 million in competitive grants: Below (and attached) are the summary of the final compromise bill released last night: o $2 billion for the Byrne JAG formula grant program; o $225 million for Byrne competitive grants (see purposes below); o $225 million for Violence Against Women programs, of which $175 million is for the STOP grants and $50 million is for the transitional housing assistance grants program; o $1 billion for the COPS Office for the hiring and rehiring of additional career law enforcement officers and civilian public safety personnel...

Outgoing Sheriff went on forfeiture-backed spending spree

Posted on February 14, 2009
With Chairman John Whitmire and the Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee poised to exercise greater oversight over asset forfeiture accounts controlled by local law enforcement agencies, a reader points to an example from the chairman's home county which shows how such monies are subject to whimsical, unregulated and politicized spending...

Why no criminal prosecution when companies bribe?

Posted on February 13, 2009
I've been railing against bribe takers and bribe givers in public corruption cases on this blog for some time now; we've even seen Texas Sheriffs sent to jail and commissary vendors prosecuted in state court over the practice. But after learning from Lindsay Beyerstein about federal "deferred prosecution agreements" for corporate wrongdoers, I'm now wondering why companies implicated in federal bribery cases don't also face the criminal prosecution?The latest corporate crook caught red-handed in a bribery scandal is one of Houston's most prominent companies...

False positives plague drug tests by Bexar probation

Posted on February 13, 2009
Not every actual innocence case involves murders, rapes, or other heinous crimes. In San Antonio, between 2/3 and 3/4 of positive urine tests from the Bexar probation department resulted in false accusations of drug use, Greg Harman at the SA Current reports ("Urine trouble," Feb...

DA's overreliance on asset forfeiture income violates the law

Posted on February 13, 2009
Having written the other day about asset forfeiture abuses, I was pleased to do a TV interview yesterday with a local reporter from the Valley who was in Austin doing an investigative feature on the topic. Without queering his scoop (which I'll be sure to link to when his story runs), I was shocked when he showed me documentation of a District Attorney's office that received fully 1/3 of its annual budget, including salaries, from asset forfeiture income...

The folly of impouding cars for no insurance

Posted on February 13, 2009
Dallas and Carrollton are now impounding cars of drivers with no insurance when they're pulled over at traffic stops - that's about one in four cars on Texas roads. Meanwhile, more than 200 departments statewide are participating in a traffic warrant roundup aimed at generating revenue...

Criminal justice committees in the Texas House

Posted on February 12, 2009
Texas House committee assignments are (finally) out today - see here (pdf). Here's the list for criminal justice related committees:Corrections:Chair: Jim McReynoldsVice Chair: Jerry MaddenKirk EnglandTerri HodgeHarold DuttonLois KolkhorstMarisa MarquezArmando MartinezSid MillerSolomon Ortiz, Jr...

Meet Barack Obama's new Drug Czar

Posted on February 12, 2009
For those looking to read tea leaves regarding the Obama Administration's likely approach to drug policy, meet his just-appointed drug czar, Seattle police chief Gil Kerlikowske. According to the Seattle Political Intelligencer:Many local people expected that Kerlikowske would be chosen for a federal post, but were surprised by this appointment, saying he rarely speaks on drug enforcement, unlike his platforms on gun control and community policing...

Stimulus debate foregrounded controversy over Byrne grants

Posted on February 12, 2009
An article at Stateline.org ("Stimulus prompts debate over police funds," Feb. 11) cited some of my past work critical of the federal Byrne grant program, for which $1.2 billion made it into Congress' final stimulus compromise. Proponents see the multijurisdictional drug task forces primarily funded by the program as job creators, but:Critics say the task forces, because of their unique cross-jurisdictional structure, enjoy virtually unchecked law enforcement power that has been abused in the past and remain unaccountable for how they spend their money...

Cartel truce best hope for ending Mexican drug violence

Posted on February 11, 2009
Holy crap! Drug cartels in Mexico are getting bolder and bolder. According to the BBC:on Monday, armed men forced their way into a prison in the northern city of Torreon, and killed three inmates. The dead men were being held for kidnapping and murder, and were transferred to the prison less than two hours before the incident...

State of Judiciary address promotes indigent defense, innocence reforms

Posted on February 11, 2009
In his State of the Judiciary address (pdf) delivered today on the floor of the Texas House, Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson made two points implicating criminal justice topics. The first related to indigent defense; the Chief Justice declared:Access to justice for low-income Texans continues to require the coordinated efforts of all branches of government...

Perry reappoints Harrell as TYC Ombudsman

Posted on February 10, 2009
Governor Perry today announced he's renominating my old boss Will Harrell as the Texas Youth Commission's independent Ombudsman, according to a press release:Gov. Rick Perry has named Will Harrell of Austin the Texas Youth Commission (TYC) Independent Ombudsman for a term to expire Feb...

Take the profit motive out of asset forfeiture

Posted on February 10, 2009
With the Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee poised to propose new restrictions on asset forfeiture income by police and prosecutors, the timing of Sunday's San Antonio Express News story about what amounts to roadside piracy by police in the tiny East Texas town of Tenaha couldn't have come at a more appropriate time time ("Property seizures seen as piracy," Feb...

Dallas County looks to traffic ticket revenue for budget shortfall

Posted on February 09, 2009
The February issue of Car and Driver includes a story describing how many jurisdictions are giving more traffic tickets as a revenue booster during tough financial times: Some police officers, such as Sgt. Richard Lyons of Trenton, Michigan, say they don?t like being pressured to write more tickets...

Feds tolerate white collar crimes more than drug offenses

Posted on February 09, 2009
You're a lot more likely to wind up in a federal prison if you're arrested on a drug charge, according to the US Sentencing Commission, than you are for engaging in larceny, fraud, or white collar crime. According to a new report by the USSC titled "Alternative Sentencing in the Federal Criminal Justice System" (pdf), a whopping 92% of drug convictions resulted in a prison sentence, compared to 39% of convictions for larceny, 60% of convictions for fraud, and just 57% of convictions for white collar crime...

Byrne grants, the anti-stimulus

Posted on February 09, 2009
I'm disappointed to see that the federal Byrne grant program - which gives block grants to the states to pay for hundreds of regional drug task forces across the country like the one in the infamous Tulia drug stings - made it into the version of the stimulus bill approved by the Senate, though at just one-third the funding level proposed by President Obma...

USDOJ should embrace, not fight science-based forensics

Posted on February 08, 2009
Now that Eric Holder, President Obama's appointee to lead the Department of Justice, has been confirmed as US Attorney General, one of his first orders of business should be removing all obstacles to the release of a new National Academy of Sciences report analyzing the scientific basis (or lack thereof) for techniques used by forensic crime lab analysts...

Pecos prison dreams up in smoke

Posted on February 08, 2009
There was a time not long ago when prisons in Texas were fallaciously promoted as engines for rural economic development, but that has turned out to be a failed experiment.Tom Barry at Border Lines has a couple of terrific posts implicating this phenomenon in reaction to the second riot in as many months protesting inadequate medical care at a private prison in Pecos, TX, housing immigrant detainees...

Blaming the victim

Posted on February 07, 2009
I've been around the block often enough in politics that I don't tend to get angry at someone just because they disagree with me, but the petty defensiveness of the Lubbock DA in reaction to the Timothy Cole exoneration left my blood boiling. Here's the quote that set me off from yesterday's Austin Statesman:Though he has not conducted a review of the case, [Lubbock County Criminal District Attorney Matthew] Powell did not blame police and prosecutors when asked where the case went wrong...

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