Criminal Law

One more reason among many I don't live in Oklahoma

Posted on February 03, 2008
A regular commenter points to this Houston Chronicle story about in-country migrations caused by a new Oklahoma law criminalizing employers who hire illegal immigrants to say that anti-immigration laws "work" ("Laws aimed at hiring illegal workers drive many to Texas," Feb...

"Contradictory" claims can coexist if you understand border security problems

Posted on February 02, 2008
Since I've been particularly focused on the border this week, it's fitting that the House State Affairs and House Corrections Committees yesterday held a joint hearing on immigration and the justice system at the University of Texas at Dallas, reports the Dallas News ("Conflicting data on crime, immigration presented at legislators' public hearing," Feb...

LBB: Texas prison population growth "flat"

Posted on February 01, 2008
Prison building enthusiasts must have been disappointed to learn that the Legsislative Budget Board will release new estimates on Monday showing "flat" growth in Texas' prison population, just a year after LBB suggested the state would witness major prison bed shortfalls in the next few years...

End of an Era: Passports required to enter Mexico starting today

Posted on January 31, 2008
For my entire lifetime, you could walk or drive into Mexico from Texas with no ID except a Texas driver's license; I didn't get a passport myself until the first time I went overseas. But starting today, every American entering Mexico must have a passport, thanks to the Department of Homeland Stupidity Security...

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Should harm to reputation be taken into account during punishment?

Posted on January 31, 2008
In recent times under federal sentencing guidelines, the only way a defendant could receive a "downward departure" from mandatory sentence requirements has been to become an informant and enter into a "5-K" agreement with federal prosecutors.Now, Doc Berman brings word of a "rare (first?) post-Booker high-profile sentencing setting, at least that I can recall, in which the government is urging a below-guideline sentence for reasons other than cooperation with authorities...

Paid By the Load

Posted on January 31, 2008
I mentioned the other day that corrupt cops and border enforcers frequently get paid by the load on the US side for allowing drugs to pass through their jurisdiction, and from El Paso comes another example ("Fugitive border patrol agent back in El Paso," EP Times, Jan...

It's the checkpoints, stupid: A border wall won't stop smuggling at legal crossings

Posted on January 30, 2008
If your goal is to stop drug smugglers, a border wall won't help and here's why: Most smuggling traffic in narcotics happens by air, by sea, and through the regular checkpoints or "plazas" where a vast number of legitimate travelers cross back and forth every day...

Barney Fife had more bullets than these guys

Posted on January 30, 2008
Mexican police in five border towns - Reynosa, Rio Bravo, Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo and Valle Hermoso - are patrolling the streets only with batons after being disarmed earlier in the week by the Army for suspected drug involvement. No word when they'll get their guns back - the weapons were confiscated to see if any had been used in cartel-related killings...

Los Niños de Los Zetas

Posted on January 30, 2008
Will the children and grandchildren of Los Zetas become Mexico's version of the Kennedys, parlaying a prohibition-generated fortune into multi-generational wealth and political power?I mentioned yesterday that both criminality and affluence tend to run in families...

To prevent crime, focus resources on children of incarcerated parents

Posted on January 29, 2008
Because children of incarcerated parents are 6-8 times more likely than their peers to wind up in prison themselves, I've long believed that whenever the state chooses to incarcerate a parent of a minor child, a rational crime prevention strategy would focus significant resources for psych counseling, tutoring, mentoring, and other services for their children...

Are more Texas kids using drugs, or are more schools spending resources trying to catch them?

Posted on January 29, 2008
The Texas Education Agency reports double digit annual increases in student discipline for drug offenses in North Texas counties, but no one knows whether that means more kids are doing drugs or if schools are just disciplining more frequently for it...

Too short TYC search for new executive director?

Posted on January 29, 2008
The Texas Civil Rights Project's Jim Harrington tells the Statesman and a local TV station that one week isn't long enough to leave the Executive Director's job posting open. Harrington says he "smells duplicity and that a ?fix is in? for a particular candidate...

CCA incumbent faces strong GOP primary challenge

Posted on January 29, 2008
Of the three incumbents up for re-election to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, only two face opponents, and only one faces challengers in both the primary and the general election: GOP Judge Paul Womack, who faces off in March against Dallas District Judge Robert Francis...

Lots of MSM coverage of multinational drug cartels

Posted on January 28, 2008
Since I've been posting a great deal recently on the Mexican border wars and multinational drug cartel activity, I wanted to point readers to some related recent MSM coverage:Hunting El Puma, The McAllen MonitorMexico, US step up drug war cooperation, The Christian Science MonitorMexico says crackdown is pressuring cartels, The Houston ChronicleMexico's Narco-Insurgency, Time MagazineArrests, slayings underscore Mexico's drug crisis, The Washington PostSeized cash likely drug related, The El Paso TimesChertoff quote to 'grow up' way off base, The El Paso TimesFear grows with violence in Peru's cocaine trade, ReutersFor sale to the highest bidder: A little bit of a drug lord's empire, The Guardian (UK)

Now you pay attention: Lying informants in Brooklyn get NY Times thinking about snitches

Posted on January 28, 2008
Informants or "snitches" have been called the "life blood" of police work, says the New York Times, but they may also be a "poison."Naturally, despite bad informant cases all over the country, it took a major case of a mendacious informant in NYC proper for the Grey Lady to pay closer attention to the subject, which it does today in an overview of problems created by police reliance on snitches ("Officers' arrests puts spotlight on police use of informants," Jan...

Media hits Bexar DA Susan Reed over prosecution of Christian activists for needle exchange ministry

Posted on January 28, 2008
The decision by the Bexar County DA to use needle exchange-related prosecutions for political grandstanding appears to be backfiring, at least to judge by the media response.National media are paying attention, and editorial boards around the state are beginning to take potshots at Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed's use of prosecutorial discretion to charge three Christian needle exchange activists with Class A misdemeanors instead of the Class C offense the officer originally alleged...

Conservatives must choose: Are they Anti-'Amnesty' or Pro-Business?

Posted on January 28, 2008
The GOP and the conservative movement in Texas face a big practical glitch as their patchwork ideology meets reality on the ground regarding immigration: At the end of the day, you cannot both be anti-"amnesty" and pro-business. The Dallas News over the weekend demonstrated why that's true in an effective article ("Employers wary of policing immigration," Jan...

Further Down the Rabbit Hole: Bastrop Sheriff accepted bribe from man accused of illegal gambling operation

Posted on January 27, 2008
The string of recent corruption stories coming out of Texas cities and law enforcement around the state makes me think the topic nearly deserves its own independent blog: No doubt you could productively focus on the topic full time. Part of me feels good that these cases are being prosecuted, since we're now seeing them with so much greater frequency...

If we must have a wall, where should we build it?

Posted on January 27, 2008
This week's reader survey questions where, if anywhere, Texas really needs to build a wall. Here are the options for this week's poll:On the Rio Grande to keep out the MexicansOn the Red River to keep out the OkiesOn the Sabine River to keep out people from Louisiana and ArkansasOn the western border to keep out Californians and Phoenix refugeesI don't want a wallYou can choose multiple options...

More documentation, obfuscation, about drug cartel violence on the border and the response by US law enforcement

Posted on January 27, 2008
Continuing on recent days' theme of confronting the US-side infrastructure of multinational drug cartels, I was interested this morning to read this article ("US working to help contain violence in Mexico," Jan. 27) by David McLemore of the Dallas News, which adds both new data and anecdotes to the mix of public information available about recent cartel-related violence: The U...

What do we know about US-side drug cartel infrastructure?

Posted on January 26, 2008
Ever since I learned last spring during legislative committee hearings that Governor Perry's border security initiative basically amounts to a Laurel and Hardy routine, I've been paying a lot more attention to the threat posed by drug cartels' violence and corruption trickling (at this point, pouring?) across the border onto US/Texas soil...

Following the money in search of American drug bosses

Posted on January 25, 2008
I've wondered frequently before who are the "drug kingpins" on the US side of the border, and speculated that the best way to find out would be to follow the money.The most important money laundering connection yet discovered in the ongoing fight against Mexican drug cartels was revealed last year when, according to Forbes ("Banking on Drugs," Nov...

TYC Executive Director Job Posted

Posted on January 25, 2008
The Texas Youth Commission has just posted the job for a permanent executive director on its website.As the Dallas Morning News editorial writers said today on the op-ed page, "We hope Dimitria Pope, the acting executive director, enjoys that new $600 office chair, since it sounds like she won't be sitting in it much longer...

Who visits here? A bit of Friday afternoon navel gazing

Posted on January 25, 2008
Not a terrific shock, but according to Grits' latest reader survey, 20% of Grits readers are attorneys, 21% government workers, 6% are cops or others with a badge, and 53% identified themselves as "civilians," given those four options. In all, 466 people responded...

New rules for TDCJ phone service approved; bids to be solicited soon

Posted on January 24, 2008
Nearly a decade into the 21st century, Texas prisons will finally enter the 20th and install phones soon in all TDCJ units, thanks to legislation approved by the 80th Texas Legislature.Nearly 80% of Texas prison inmates will qualify for phone privileges under new rules promulgated yesterday by TDCJ, AP reports ("Texas prisoners on verge of getting regular phone privileges," Jan...

Los Zetas subcommander convicted in McAllen: Details emerge of Gulf Cartel operations

Posted on January 24, 2008
I've heard of tunnels across the Mexican border in California and Arizona, but across the Rio Grande! That's an impressive bit of tunneling!That's just one tantalizing tidbit arising from the trial and guilty verdict this week of an alleged Los Zetas subcommander in McAllen, providing unique insight into the inner workings of the notorious Gulf Cartel...

Texas Monthly names Harrell one of group "who will shape Texas' future"

Posted on January 24, 2008
Texas Monthly named Youth Commission Ombudsman Will Harrell one of its 35 People Who Will Shape Our Future. Congrats, Will!Here's their feature article about him written by Nate Blakeslee. Readers from TYC will be interested to learn that Jay Kimbrough's appointment of Harrell, he said, stemmed from Will's involvement in the campaign to abolish Texas' Tulia-style drug task forces:The two first met in 2001, when Harrell was the executive director of the ACLU of Texas and Kimbrough became executive director of Perry?s criminal justice division...

Does camera surveillance in public areas reduce crime? New Austin police chief thinks so

Posted on January 24, 2008
So which is it: Is Dallas one of the most crime-ridden cities in the country with robberies of businesses on the rise, as the Dallas New tells us ("Banks continue to cope with spate of robberies: 2007 total falls just below record, business breakins rise 10%," Jan...

Half of TX prison doctor positions currently vacant

Posted on January 24, 2008
Dr. Ben Raimer from UTMB says more than 50% of physician slots at UTMB are vacant!!CORRECTION: Apparently I (and every reporter and senator in the room) misheard Dr. Raimer; the UTMB PR director contacted me to say that Raimer said 15%, not 50%, of doctor positions are vacant...

Ex-Im Bank stonewalling media on weak, new anti-corruption guidelines

Posted on January 23, 2008
One of the most important stories I've seen regarding drug cartel corruption of an important American government institution has gone virtually unremarked by the mainstream media except for a single, dogged broadcast journalist in Dallas, WFAA-TV's Byron Harris, who first broke the story last month about Ex-Im Bank loans to phony companies registered to figures connected to Mexican drug cartels...

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