Criminal Law

Brady violations by DPS fingerprint examiners? Is fingerprint examination even science?

Posted on October 09, 2010
There was an astonishing moment yesterday at a breakout session on fingerprint examination at the Texas Forensic Science Seminar, at which Department of Public Safety fingerprint examiner Bryan Strong (who seemed like a really nice guy so I hate to pick on him) was describing how his division implemented the ACEV method of fingerprint examination in ways that may violate the state and prosecutors' obligations under Brady v...

Dumb on Crime: 'DWI-lite' suggestion lacks common sense

Posted on October 08, 2010
Texas has too many criminal laws, and one big reason is that whenever it becomes apparent that some existing statute is dysfunctional, the typical response by the Legislature is to create new crimes instead of fix problems with the existing code. That's the ill-conceived suggestion from Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo, who wants to create a new crime - "Driving While Ability Impaired" - to go after drivers who've been drinking but whose blood alcohol content (BAC) is below the legal ...

Keller appeal of "warning" due today

Posted on October 08, 2010
Something to watch for: Today (Friday Oct. 8) is when the three-judge panel in Judge Sharon Keller's disciplinary proceedings with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct are scheduled to issue their ruling on her motion to dismiss the case. See earlier Grits coverage of the hearing and filings in the case with the SCJC.

SCOTUS to hear TX DNA case next week

Posted on October 08, 2010
The US Supreme Cout next week will hear oral arguments in a Texas death penalty case where the defendant, Hank Skinner, claims innocence and seeks DNA testing. Previewing the case, SCOTUSBlog says "it is tempting to state what seems obvious: when a man?s life or death depends on it, and the evidence still exists, why not just test it?"

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Grits turns six

Posted on October 07, 2010
I failed to mention (or really, until today, recall) that yesterday was the sixth anniversary of the first post on Grits for Breakfast. Since then, the blog has welcomed more than 2.6 million visitors with nearly twice as many page views. I've now surpassed 5,500 posts and there have been more than 60,000 comments during that time...

Prosecutors seldom disciplined for misconduct; can they be held liable in civil court?

Posted on October 07, 2010
Before heading out (a little late) this a.m. to the Texas Forensic Science Seminar at the capitol, I wanted to point readers to the transcript from oral arguments (pdf) at the US Supreme Court in a Louisiana case (Connick v. Thompson) which will determine whether prosecutors can be held liable in Sec...

Forensic Science Seminar makes a splash

Posted on October 07, 2010
I'm too tired and busy with cooking duties tonight to recount all the day's events, but today's Texas Forensic Science Seminar (see Dallas News coverage; the agenda with links to handouts here) was an impressive affair. The auditorium in the capitol was jam-packed...

TDCJ may lose hundreds of guards due to positive drug tests

Posted on October 06, 2010
From the Cherokean Herald ("TDCJ employees pass drug tests," Oct. 6):The Texas Department of Criminal Justice?s 112 prison units saw something new added in August? random drug testing for all employees. Statewide 15 employees failed the tests in September and were terminated...

The rise of debtors prisons?

Posted on October 06, 2010
Some extracurricular reading for those interested, via the Texas Observer, which pulled some of the greatest hits from the reports:From Facing South, the online magazine of the Institute for Southern Studies.The Brennan Center for Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union released reports this week documenting the growing problem of criminal justice debt and the considerable costs it's imposing on communities, taxpayers and indigent people convicted of crimes...

The missing panel at upcoming fire marshals' conference

Posted on October 06, 2010
Texas fire marshals will hold a four-day conference later this month (Oct. 18-22) here in Austin, but none of the topics on the agenda (pdf) confront the question of past convictions based on now-discredited arson forensics. That's disappointing. There are too many people sitting in prison based on junk arson science for the experts to just ignore the subject...

Willingham court of inquiry postponed: Culture War shouting down scientific debates on arson

Posted on October 06, 2010
Judge Charlie Baird postponed the Todd Willingham Court of Inquiry to give attorneys for his family time to respond to the Navarro County DA's motion for recusal. There was a large press gaggle in attendance today at the Travis County Courthouse, so I decided to leave the blow-by-blow coverage to those paid to be there, which is good since the case ended up being pushed back...

What would Ronald Reagan do about too-high prison costs?

Posted on October 05, 2010
Why he'd slash the incarceration rate by more than a third! At least that's what he did in California as Governor, according to this fascinating article out of California. Here's a notable excerpt:Rosemary Gartner, a criminologist at the University of Toronto, was studying the history of California?s women?s prisons when she stumbled across an unexpected fact: between 1968 and 1972, the incarceration rate in California dropped by 34 percent...

A tardy motion to recuse in the Willingham court of inquiry

Posted on October 05, 2010
Apparently not everybody is as revved up for Flawed Forensic Science Week as I am here at Grits, and some would like to put a stop to one of its featured events.In a motion filed late yesterday, Navarro County DA Lowell Thompson asked Judge Charlie Baird to recuse himself from the probable cause hearing for a Court of Inquiry scheduled to begin tomorrow in the Todd Willingham case, reports Steve Kreytak at the Austin Statesman:Navarro County District Attorney Lowell Thompson has filed a motion asking for Judge Charlie Baird?s recusal from tomorrow?s planned court inquiry into the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004 for the arson deaths of his three young daughters...

Smarter parole approach on longest sentences would save money, reduce recidivism

Posted on October 04, 2010
I've been interested to read about a controversy in New Hampshire over a newly implemented parole statute requiring the state to release long-term prisoners at least 9 months prior to finishing their maximum sentence - even those with convictions for violent and sex offenses - so they'll spend their initial reentry period under supervision...

Sheriff: Military base bigger source of El Paso crime increase than Juarez cartels

Posted on October 04, 2010
David Crowder at El Paso Inc. has published an extensive interview with El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles covering several subjects that may interest Grits readers. Marijuana laws Wiles offered his opinion that the state's marijuana laws are counterproductive, declaring "I?m not for legalization, per se, but I think the way we deal with the end user is probably not appropriate...

Scientists school forensic commission chair on difference between 'legal' and 'right'

Posted on October 04, 2010
Continuing with our theme of Flawed Forensic Science Week, check out this notable article from Houston Chronicle columnist Rick Casey regarding Texas' Forensic Science Commission, observing that scientists among the group have rebelled against Chairman John Bradley "in a showdown between science and politics" concerning old arson cases - a conflict in which science, for once, "won a resounding victory...

The Criminalization of Gardening and other stories

Posted on October 04, 2010
Here are several items I won't have time to blog about today but which merit readers' attention:Is Mexican gangster violence an insurgency, or worse?DA's feud with county commissioners leads to criminal inquiry into sustainable gardening. (No, they weren't growing pot...

Speakers announced for Forensic Science Seminar

Posted on October 04, 2010
Anticipating one of the big events here during Flawed Forensic Science Week, here's a press release just received from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals' Criminal Justice Integrity Unit  about their seminar later this week at the Texas capitol: On behalf of the Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit, Judge Barbara Hervey is proud to announce that the Texas Forensic Science Seminar will take place on October 7-8, 2010, at the Texas State Capitol Auditorium...

Time to ban junk science from courtrooms

Posted on October 03, 2010
Kicking off Flawed Forensic Science Week, here's a notable excerpt from an op ed in the Houston Chronicle ("It's time to ban junk science from Texas courtrooms," Oct. 2) from Jeff Blackburn, Gary Udashen and Cory Session (Timothy Cole's half brother) from the Innocence Project of Texas on the need to ferret junk science out of Texas courtrooms and redress wrongful convictions from the past:There are few things more convincing to a jury than scientific evidence presented by expert witnesses called by the state in a criminal case...

Previewing Flawed Forensic Science Week

Posted on October 01, 2010
Next week for several days, the big criminal justice news in Austin will revolve around flawed forensic science:The Todd Willingham posthumous court of inquiry next week will be held in Judge Charlie Baird's court October 6-7, next Wednesday and Thursday...

The Wimpy Approach to funding local police: Federal COPS grants

Posted on October 01, 2010
You'd think that in the wake of the Wall Street financial crisis in subprime lending, by now everyone would have figured out that the pitch "buy now, pay later" - call it the Wimpy approach, from the character in the Popeye cartoon who routinely promised, "I'll gladly pay you on Tuesday for a hamburger today" - is a recipe for higher costs down the line than one's income base can support...

Pew: Incarceration reduces employment, long-term economic growth

Posted on October 01, 2010
A new study from the Pew Charitable Trusts quantifies a lamentable trend that's retarding the economy and employment for millions of Americans: Incarceration strongly correlates to reduced employment and long-term earnings. What's more, the economic harms from imprisonment extend to inmates' children...

Indigent defense/post-conviction DNA testing news

Posted on October 01, 2010
Several items caught my eye from the Task Force on Indigent Defense, including two related to post-conviction DNA testing:First, Gov. Perry's Criminal Justice Division has allocated $300K for grants (pdf) to the state's four innocence "clinics" at public law schools...

Thursday morning roundup

Posted on September 30, 2010
As I spend time this on working on projects for which people are actually paying me (and thank heavens for them!), here are a few items that might otherwise deserve more detailed adumbration:Drugging youth convictsThe site Youth Today has a good feature on the use of psychotropic meds behind bars among juveniles, focusing much of the article on Texas Youth Commission chief Cherie Townsend's efforts to reduce the agency's off-label use of anti-psychotic drugs...

You can tell it's election season ...

Posted on September 29, 2010
You can tell it's election season when politicians begin launching demagogic proposals to get "tough" on sex offenders, as Gov. Rick Perry was doing in Houston this week. Commenters at the Texas Tribune following the story pretty universally saw this as a transparent campaign ploy and counterproductive to actually managing sex offenders, but who know how such tactics resonate with the average voter?It's not as though sex offender laws don't need revamping...

Be careful what you ask for

Posted on September 29, 2010
It's a good thing Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia failed to get his wish for constructing more jail space since the commissioners court won't approve full staffing for the facilities he runs now. Over the Sheriff's objections, they're also forcing the process of choosing jails to outsource inmates to go through a competitive bidding process.

This will go in your permanent file: Appropriations considers juvie corrections

Posted on September 29, 2010
This morning I attended a joint meeting of the TX House Appropriations Criminal Justice Subcommittee and the House Corrections Committee, on the assumption that with a tight budget season in front of us, it'd be good to get a lay of the land on juvenile justice budgdets and in particular diversion and probation programming which were the main topic of discussion...

Willingham, Cacy arson inquiries up ante on junk science debate

Posted on September 28, 2010
Travis County District Judge Charlie Baird, who presided over Timothy Cole's posthumous exoneration, has agreed to take up the Cameron Todd Willingham case upon request of Barry Scheck and the national Innocence Project out of New York. See coverage from the Fort Worth Star Telegram, the Houston Chronicle, and the Austin Statesman for the broad outlines of the story...

Irrationality: Creating incentives for defendants to choose incarceration

Posted on September 28, 2010
?To be quite honest, it?s a very rational decision? to choose incarceration over probation for many misdemeanor offenses, the director of the Bell/Lampassas County probation department told the Texas Tribune in a story titled "Many choosing jail time over probation," a subject we've discussed here on Grits for many years...

Latest exoneration highlights problem of false confessions

Posted on September 28, 2010
The latest exoneration out of Dallas involved a deaf man who spent 17 years behind bars on a rape charge thanks to a false confession in which he also confessed to a crime police had made up. According to the Dallas News, Stephen Matthew Brodie:originally pleaded guilty in 1993 to the abduction and assault of a 5-year-old girl in exchange for a five-year sentence...

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