Criminal Law
Grits for Breakfast 
Texas criminal justice system and related topics with some politics and author's fancy thrown in.
Post Frequency: 5.7/day Last Entry: November 20, 2009 at 09:44:00 Recent Entries: 1789
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US Sentencing Commission hears testimony on alternatives to incarceration, reentry
Posted on November 20, 2009Yesterday morning I attended a portion of the regional hearing in Austin of the US Sentencing Commission, in particular a panel on "Alternatives to Incarceration, Reentry, and Community Impact." Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins was one of the panelists, and his comments were featured in coverage by the Associated Press...
Out for the morning: Sentencing coverage to come
Posted on November 19, 2009This morning I'm headed up to the UT Law School to hear a couple of panels presenting to the US Sentencing Commission, then after lunch out to a Sentencing Conference held biennially for judges, prosecutors and probation officials by TDCJ's Community Justice Assistance Division...
Should prosectuors, public defenders, cops be required to 'resign to run'?
Posted on November 19, 2009Should county employees be required to resign before they run for public office? Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins initiated the debate by implementing a resign-to-run policy in his office six months ago, reports Kevin Krause at the Dallas News ("Dallas County public defender's proposed 'resign to run' policy has judicial candidates in office crying foul," Nov...
Medication lapse for Harris jail inmates especially long for patients with HIV
Posted on November 19, 2009Randall Patterson has a compelling story at the Houston Press ("Jail misery," Nov. 19) that demonstrates in human form what the US Justice Department said were unconstitutional flaws in the Harris County jail's healthcare system. He highlights the case of Monte Killian, who became extremely ill after the jail failed to get him AIDS medication in a timely fashion...
ACLU: CCA ignored evidence of false confession in capital case
Posted on November 18, 2009Here's the text of a press release published today by the ACLU regarding a Court of Criminal Appeals decision in the Max Soffar case. I offer it FWIW, I have no personal knowledge of the details of the case: Texas Appeals Court Rejects Appeal Of Innocent Man On Death Row For 28 Years Death Sentence Upheld Despite Overwhelming Evidence Pointing To InnocenceAUSTIN, Texas - November 18 - The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals today rejected the appeal of an innocent man represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Texas Innocence Network (TIN) who has been incarcerated on Texas's death row for more than 28 years...
Florida looking to Texas for overincarceration solutions
Posted on November 18, 2009Just a few years ago it was unimaginable that anyone would look to Texas for solutions to overincarceration pressures in state prisons. But beginning in 2007, Texas embarked on a remarkable bipartisan effort spearheaded by Sen. John Whitmire and Rep. Jerry Madden to avoid new prison building by expanding diversion programming and creating incentives to use progressive sanctions and reduce probation revocations...
Nueces looks to GPS for supervising work-release offenders
Posted on November 18, 2009Nueces County plans to try using GPS ankle monitors and house arrest in lieu of incarcerating offenders in the county's work-release program. Reports the Corpus Christi Caller Times ("Commissioners approve ankle monitoring to relieve jail overcrowding," Nov...
Does rise in white-collar prosecutions stem from too-weak business regulation?
Posted on November 17, 2009I've suggested before that white-collar crime prosecutions shouldn't be used as alternatives to industry regulation, but given how white-collar cases frequently play out in the real world, I can understand why that approach is politically and, to an extent, even practically justified...
Federal Sentencing Commission to hold regional hearing this week in Austin
Posted on November 17, 2009Via Sentencing Law and Policy I discover that the US Sentencing Commission will be meeting in Austin this week. Here's the press release announcing the event and an agenda with a list of speakers.According to the release, "The public and the media are invited to attend the hearing, which will be held at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, Eidman Courtroom, CCJ Building, 727 East Dean Keeton Street, Austin, TX 78705...
DPS to parents: Your kid could become a Mexican cartel assassin if you don't watch out
Posted on November 17, 2009I have to wonder what was the purpose behind the timing of a DPS press release (pdf) issued today? Here's the text:DPS warns parents:Mexican cartels and gangs recruiting in Texas schoolsThe Texas Department of Public Safety is warning parents across the state to be aware of efforts by Mexican cartels and transnational gangs to recruit Texas youth in our schools and communities...
TDCJ on recording death row visits: Policy? What policy?
Posted on November 15, 2009Yesterday I got back a response to my public information act request to TDCJ (following another one, under separate cover, from the Office of Inspector General), stating that, "Pursuant to a diligent search of agency records, we have determined that no responsive information is maintained by the TDCJ in regard to your request...
Appleseed rightly sues to make police use-of-force policies public
Posted on November 15, 2009I'm pleased to learn that Texas Appleseed has filed suit challenging the Texas Attorney General's rulings on keeping use of force policies closed for police stationed at schools. (I'd encouraged Appleseed to go to court over this in a prior blog post...
Judge Sam Sparks: Parole chief Rissie Owens is "indecisive, insensitive, inattentive, incompetent, stupid, (or) weak-kneed"
Posted on November 13, 2009US District Judge Sam Sparks refused to hold parole board chair Rissie Owens personally liable, as a jury verdict would have him do, for applying sex-offender registration to Texas parolees without even minimalist due process. But he called her out for violating parolees' civil rights in just about the harshest terms imaginable and ordered the state to pay six-figure legal fees, reports the Statesman's Mike Ward ("No liability for parole chief," Nov...
A very important distinction
Posted on November 13, 2009The New York Times clarified an important distinction in a correction to a recent story about the Innocence Project at Northwestern University: Correction: November 1, 2009An article last Sunday about the Medill Innocence Project, in which students at Northwestern University?s journalism school scrutinize the work of prosecutors and the police, misstated part of the name of a group at the university?s law school that has worked with the students...
Buddhism in Texas prisons
Posted on November 13, 2009One usually thinks of prison ministries as a Christian or perhaps an Islamic calling, but according to an informative article by Zen Zheng in the Houston Chronicle ("Cultivating her faith," Nov. 12) "Buddhist volunteers work in eight of 113 state prisons...
New rehab beds coming on line, but TDCJ still struggles with contraband
Posted on November 13, 2009After the segment of Tuesday's Senate Criminal Justice Committee on the Forensic Science Commission, I left along with the entire press corps to attend Rodney Ellis' press conference with Barry Scheck of the national Innocence Project. The rest of the senate committee and a few interested House members, however, stayed to listen to TDCJ Executive Director Brad Livingston give a brief report on contraband interdiction and the rollout of new rehab beds authorized during the last two sessions...
Why do Americans murder?
Posted on November 13, 2009A New Yorker book review by Jill Lepore explores the question "Why is American history so murderous?" Fascinating stuff. Here's her comparison (based on information in several books reviewed together) of US homicide rates with European nations:In Europe, homicide rates, conventionally represented as the number of murder victims per hundred thousand people in the population per year, have been falling for centuries...
'Constables Gone Wild'
Posted on November 13, 2009The title of this post is the headline to a Dallas News editorial about evidence that two Dallas constables misled investigators when they claimed not to have contracts with a particular towing company. An attorney for the towing company was able to produce the contracts with the constables' own signature on them...
Restorative Justice in Schools
Posted on November 12, 2009Via The Crime Report:A new publication by the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority provides suggestions for how schools can address behavioral issues and rule-breaking from a restorative, rather than punitive, standpoint. ?Implementing Restorative Justice: A Guide for Schools,? finds that ?there is no evidence that zero tolerance policies improve student behavior, the school climate or overall school safety,? and encourages school officials to counter the trend of criminalizing school misconduct with such techniques as separating the deed from the doer and using misbehavior as an opportunity for learning...
Petty cash to informants: Routine investigative technique or inducement to perjury?
Posted on November 12, 2009One of the ways I keep Grits a (relatively) manageable project is by remaining geographically limited, so I haven't followed in more than a cursory fashion the efforts by Illinois prosecutors to legally harass Northwestern University students working with that university's innocence clinic...
When bringing Christianity into the jury box, bring all of it
Posted on November 11, 2009I've ignored until now a Texas case receiving international notoriety in which jurors consulted some of the more punitive verses in the Christian Bible during deliberations in a death penalty case. It's been getting wide play elsewhere because it hits on two culture-war touchstones - the death penalty and church-state separation - that this writer finds boring, dull and repetitive...
'Unanalyzed evidence held by law enforcement agencies'
Posted on November 11, 2009As questions continue to arise about the quality of modern forensic sciences, the National Institute of Justice in a new report (pdf) about "Unanalyzed evidence held by law enforcement agencies" raises questions about when and how forensics are used. According to the NIJ executive summary:More than 2,000 state and local law enforcement agencies responded to a survey [1] to:Estimate the number of unsolved homicide, rape and property cases [2] nationwide that contain forensic evidence that has not been submitted to a crime laboratory for analysis...
Defiant John Bradley rebuffed on secrecy pleas
Posted on November 11, 2009Blogs play different roles in different types of news stories. Frequently Grits covers topics that receive very little attention from the press, in which case simply reporting what goes on provides a meaningful service. But some stories, like Gov. Rick Perry's replacement of the Texas' Forensic Science Commission chairman with Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, take on a media life of their own...
Secrecy at forensic commission not justified based on weak investigative powers
Posted on November 10, 2009I'm headed up to the capitol a little later this morning to watch the Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee hearing on the Forensic Science Commission at 10 a.m., where new commission chairman and Williamson County DA John Bradley will explain to the committee why he shut down all commission activities immediately upon his appointment and henceforth wants to operate in secret...
Reducing forensic backlogs source of rare agreement at hearing
Posted on November 10, 2009At the Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee hearing today on the Forensic Science Commission, the only reform that new commission chair John Bradley truly sounded enthusiastic about was reducing backlogs at crime labs, so I was interested to see this report out today from CBS News analyzing backlogs in various states...
Death penalty deterrent evanescent, symbolic
Posted on November 09, 2009A couple of readers asked my opinion of a column over the weekend in the Houston Chronicle by Rick Casey ("A murder mystery by the numbers," Nov. 7) analyzing estimates of the death penalty's deterrence value. Here's the bottom line regarding the results of the latest, greatest academic study of Texas-specific data:They found that many earlier studies had vastly overestimated the effect, but the number of murders did go down in the short-term aftermath of executions...
Texas Association of Counties says constables still needed
Posted on November 09, 2009Here's a dissenting institutional view on constables, received via email:Scott HensonGrits for BreakfastSent by e-mailDear Scott:Consider this an old-fashioned letter to the editor, regarding your recent on-line question about the abolition of constables in Texas...
Hampton challenging Keasler for CCA slot in 2010
Posted on November 09, 2009Keith Hampton, a veteran appellate lawyer and chair of the legislative committee for the Texas Criminal Defense Laywers Association, has announced his candidacy for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, lining up to run against Michael Keasler. Here's Hampton's campaign website...
Most Grits readers say get rid of constables
Posted on November 08, 2009Last week Grits posed this question in a reader poll: "Does Texas still need constables in the 21st century? A whopping 67% of you said "No." Another 22% wanted to keep them and 9% weren't sure.Count me among those who believe constables should and ultimately will go the way of the county inspector of hides and animals...
Stephen Colbert on prison privatization
Posted on November 08, 2009In case y'all missed it last week, here's Stephen Colbert's recent take on prison privatization:The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30cThe Word - The Green Milewww.colbertnation.comColbert Report Full EpisodesPolitical HumorU.S. SpeedskatingJust to have said it, the preposterous notion of Arizona selling its prisons then leasing them back from the buyer to solve short-term cash flow problems ranks among the most irresponsible government schemes I've ever heard of from the taxpayers' perspective...
Bradley seeks closed meetings, records for Forensic Science Commission
Posted on November 06, 2009I know, gentle readers, you will all be shocked to learn what Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley thinks Forensic Science Commission investigations should be secret and closed to the public. That suggestion tops the list of things he'll propose next week to the Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee, according to an informative article by Mary Alice Robbins at Texas Lawyer...
A "perverse" position on prosecutors fabricating evidence ... by the Obama Administration
Posted on November 06, 2009Wednesday the US Supreme Court held oral arguments on an important case regarding prosecutorial misconduct, where prosecutors sought absolute immunity when they fabricate evidence to frame a defendant if the information is used at trial.In looking at the transcript (pdf) from Pottawatamie County v...
More detail on scent lineup case headed to Texas CCA
Posted on November 06, 2009A helpful reader points to a December 2007 article from the San Jacinto County Times about the case of Richard Lynn Winfrey, Sr., which was accepted this week by the Court of Criminal Appeals for purposes of evaluating scent lineup evidence. Here's the description of the case against him, including vastly overblown claims by prosecutors about the reliability of dog-scent lineups:Winfrey was charged with capital murder but since the missing guns were never recovered the jury had a reasonable doubt as to whether the murder occurred in the course of committing robbery and convicted Winfrey on the lesser included offense of murder...
Travis County jail expansion results in few new beds
Posted on November 05, 2009Travis County opened a massive new jail wing last week with 1,336 beds, though those will mostly replace so-called "variance" beds that the state Commission on Jail Standards previously authorized with temporary waivers to accommodate of jail overcrowding...
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will hear arguments on dog-scent evidence
Posted on November 05, 2009Thanks to an attentive commenter, I learned that just yesterday the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals agreed to hear a case out of San Jacinto County that calls into question the validity of dog scent lineups.09-0987 WINFREY, RICHARD LYNN, SR...
Hump Day Roundup
Posted on November 04, 2009Here are several criminal-justice related items from the news that merit Grits readers' attention:Fort Worth may begin jury trials for red light camera tickets.TDCJ: Prisoner can't review books on sailing for pay.TYC employee accused of sex with 14-year old...
Ramshaw, Tribune tackle TYC mental illness discharges, restraint of disabled kids at school
Posted on November 04, 2009Yesterday I neglected to offer a bloggerly "Howdy" to our friends over at the just-launched Texas Tribune, but this morning Emily Ramshaw forces the new site onto our radar screen with coverage of TYC's policies regarding mental health discharge, focusing on a recent case in Tyler where a mentally ill youth killed a schoolteacher at John Tyler High School...
More litigation, disapprobation for dog 'scent lineups'
Posted on November 04, 2009Yet another lawsuit will be filed today in federal court over false arrest and imprisonment based on dog "scent lineup" evidence from Fort Bend County Sheriff's Deputy Keith Pikett. Reports AP:Three men who spent months in jail after dogs linked their scents to evidence from crimes they did not commit are filing a lawsuit claiming Texas authorities falsely arrested and imprisoned them, their attorney said Tuesday...
Reduce pretrial detention to stave off jail overcrowding
Posted on November 04, 2009I had a conversation with someone today at the Travis County Sheriff's Office who was surprised to learn that Travis County has one of the highest rates of jailed pretrial detainees among large counties, so I thought I'd gather up the relevant data for comparison...
Prison Legal News sues TDCJ over book censorship
Posted on November 04, 2009I just received this press release via email:Prison Legal News ? For Immediate ReleaseNovember 4, 2009PUBLISHER SUES TEXAS DEPT. OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE FOR CENSORING BOOKSCorpus Christi, TX ? Prison Legal News (PLN), a non-profit monthly publication that reports on criminal justice-related issues, filed suit today in federal district court against Brad Livingston, Executive Director of the Texas Dept...
Should prostitutes be protected or prosecuted?
Posted on November 03, 2009Are prostitutes criminals or victims? Or might the correct answer be "both"? And if it's "both," what should be the relationship of law enforcement to workers in the sex trade - should they seek to prosecute or protect them? Those questions are raised by an interesting program established by the Dallas Police Department known as the Prostitution Diversion Initiative (PDI)...
Cross-examination by teleconference?
Posted on November 03, 2009Robert Guest at Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer has a post on a case out of the Dallas court of appeals which approved remote testimony via teleconference in a capital murder trial (see the opinion) because a witness who lived in Chicago was pregnant. The witness claimed hers was a high-risk pregnancy that prevented her from traveling or exerting herself, but no medical testimony was presented to support that claim...
Montgomery County spending juvie diversion funds on mental health
Posted on November 03, 2009I haven't heard much so far about how local juvenile probation departments are spending diversion money given them last spring by the Legislature to help keep kids out of the Texas Youth Commission, but here's a story out of Montgomery County ("New mental health program aimed at helping juveniles," Conroe Courier, Nov...
Do prosecutors "hate new crimes"?
Posted on November 03, 2009Our pal Shannon Edmonds of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association forwards a link to this short law review article provocatively titled, "Why prosecutors hate new crimes" (pdf). Give it a read, the fellow makes an interesting argument - one I partially (but not entirely) agree with...
Prosecutorial hubris, entitlement on display in recent cases
Posted on November 02, 2009The National Law Journal published an op ed today by Bennett Gershman criticizing the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and Collin County prosecutors for using procedural excuses to avoid addressing egregious judicial and prosecutorial conduct in the Charles Dean Hood case, where the judge and prosecutor were engaged in an extramarital affair during Hood's capital murder trial...
AG thwarting transparency on justice matters
Posted on November 02, 2009I'm incredibly disappointed at recent trends developing over at the Texas Attorney General's Open Records division. For the first several years after Greg Abbott became Texas AG, he was a staunch open government advocate - much better, frankly, than either John Cornyn or Dan Morales before him...
Bizarro allegations against TYC Ombudsman center on contraband smuggling
Posted on November 01, 2009Many readers have asked what I think about the bizarre story regarding Texas Youth Commission Ombudman Catherine Evans, a former juvenile court judge from Dallas who is under fire for smuggling contraband - allegedly including weapons, cash, a cell phone, and prescription drugs - onto TYC facilities...
Harris County judges vote next week on creating new mental health court
Posted on October 31, 2009An editorial in the Houston Chronicle supporting creation of a Harris County mental health court mentions that on Wednesday, November 4: [Harris County] criminal district court judges will vote whether to approve a detailed plan for a new ?mental-health court,? a program that promises to cut crime, take a humane stance toward mental illness and save taxpayer money all at the same time...
Prosecutorial Misconduct Roundup
Posted on October 30, 2009Here are several recent stories related to prosecutorial misconduct that merit Grits readers' attention:Joe Palazzolo, Main Justice: Justice Department Opposes Expanded Brady RuleRadley Balko, Reason: No Accountability: Why are bad prosecutors so rarely punished?Brian Rogers, Houston Chronicle: Harris County prosecutor accused of hiding evidenceChuck Lindell, Austin Statesman: CCA upheld Travis prosecutorial misconduct finding by appellate court
Maggie Lee for Good: One day, one deed
Posted on October 29, 2009Today would have been Maggie Lee Henson's 13th birthday, and I still can hardly believe she won't see any more. At left, see a picture from her 12th birthday.Regular readers will recall that over the summer, my niece Maggie Lee was tragically killed when a church bus she was riding on its way to youth camp flipped over and landed on her...
Training tomorrows narcos on the US taxpayers' dime: Importing Plan Colombia to Mexico
Posted on October 29, 2009Seeing the USA Today story, "US training bolsters Mexico's war on drugs" (10/28), I couldn't help but think the headline writer perhaps failed to grasp the irony.Since July, a total of 81 U.S. law enforcement officers have come here on three-week shifts to teach such basic police skills to their Mexican counterparts...
Fort Worth seeks non-punitive alternatives on graffiti
Posted on October 29, 2009Fort Worth police have been fighting graffiti for years, but despite their best efforts, graff has exploded since 2005, reports the Star-Telegram. The "city cleaned up more graffiti last year than it has in the previous five years." The volume of graff simply outpaces law enforcement's ability to arrest and prosecute, with a 62% increase in graffiti incidents just in city parks, but just a handful of prosecutions:The Parks Department cleaned up 7,633 sites in fiscal 2009, mostly using money from the city?s sales tax devoted to crime prevention...
Media spin prevents flu vaccines for high-risk prisoners, cost taxpayers' $$$
Posted on October 28, 2009Headline writers had a field day this week touting the supposedly alarming notion that "Some Texas convicts may get H1N1 vaccines before you." To this I responded first with a yawn, then with a "Duh," then with a "so what?" But I've been surprised how widely the story has been given play, and now the Department of State Health Services says prisoners won't be prioritized for the vaccine...
Charges against Yogurt Shop defendants dismissed
Posted on October 28, 2009One of the state's more notorious examples of apparent false confessions was finally resolved this afternoon when charges against defendants in Austin's Yogurt Shop murders were dismissed. This decision was long overdue, IMO. It was definitely past time to fish or cut bait on this one...
Did Todd Willingham confess or did Stacy Kuykendall lie?
Posted on October 27, 2009"We're not calling [Stacy] Kuykendall a liar," said the Dallas News editorial board, after she released a written statement to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram claiming Todd Willingham secretly confessed his guilt to her in her last visit with him on death row before he was executed...
Grits to readers: Cut me some slack
Posted on October 27, 2009Before launching back into Grits' usual topics, I wanted to say a word about some comments and emails received over the last few days while I was away from the blog, particularly regarding three stories some people were offended I haven't covered yet: Possible criminal charges against the TYC Ombudsman, the dismissal of a lawsuit against the Bexar probation department by a union leader, and Stacy Kuykendall's claim that Todd Willingham confessed to her before his execution...
How many Dallas cops gave tickets to non-English speakers?
Posted on October 27, 2009I couldn't make this stuff up; from the Dallas News:Since 2007, at least 20 Dallas police officers from five patrol divisions have wrongly cited motorists for not speaking English, according to records.The number of officers tied to the tickets is greater than police initially estimated...
Does Texas need constables in the 21st century?
Posted on October 27, 2009Here's a pair of must-read articles from Ed Timms and Kevin Krause at the Dallas News on the evolving role of constables over the last 15 years and whether they've seen too much mission creep:Dallas County constables' growing ticketing said to boost safety - and county coffersWith little scrutiny, Dallas County constables have turned offices into de facto police departmentsAccording to the first story:[Will] Hartnett, a Republican state representative from Dallas, is concerned with what he sees as a "dramatic expansion" of constables' duties...
Traveling Day Open Thread
Posted on October 23, 2009I'm headed out of town today, so use this as an open thread to discuss whatever you want until I return in a couple of days. In the meantime, here are several recent items that merit Grits readers' attention:Free Standing InnocenceSeveral good items are up at the blog A Criminal Enterprise, including this piece on whether there exists (or should exist) a free standing actual innocence claim under the 8th Amendment...
How low can you go? Taser tells police don't aim at chest
Posted on October 22, 2009Taser International yesterday issued an advisory to police agencies using their product not to shoot suspects in the chest (which of course is where they're taught to aim because it provides the largest target) but to "aim a little lower." (!)Uh, exactly how much lower? This advice immediately made me think of a video from a police training session I saw awhile back depicting an officer accidentally tasered in the groin...
Sloppy practices alleged at Dallas crime lab
Posted on October 22, 2009A lawsuit has been filed in Dallas by a crime lab employee alleging he was fired for pointing out sloppy practices in the serology lab that could contaminate findings. Reported WFAA-TV:A forensic biologist who was fired by Dallas County's crime lab said he will file a whistleblower lawsuit against his former employer on Wednesday...
Two more innocent men from Dallas getting out after 12 years
Posted on October 21, 2009Dallas DA Craig Watkins' Conviction Integrity Unit has identified exonerating evidence regarding two more Dallas men sentenced to life in prison, the Dallas News reports:Claude Alvin Simmons, Jr., 54, and Christopher Shun Scott, 39, who are both serving life sentences for the April 7, 1997, shooting death of Alfonso Aguilar, will both be released after convicted robber Alonzo Hardy gave authorities a detailed confession implicating himself and another man in the murder...
Might white collar cases be next venue for innocence claims?
Posted on October 21, 2009Given the scope of subjects covered on this blog, I don't focus as often as perhaps I'd like on white-collar crime issues, but here are several recent posts on the topic from others that deserve Grits readers attention:Doc Berman ponts to the abstract of an academic paper by White Collar Crime Prof blogger Ellen Podgor who suggests that "the next phase of wrongful convictions might move beyond street crimes into the white collar world" because the "trial penalty" for not cutting a deal is so great that "in order to minimize the possible consequences, innocence becomes an irrelevancy...
Harris County rebuffs Houston's drive for red-light camera revenue
Posted on October 20, 2009As a long-time critic of using red-light cameras as revenue-generation schemes, I was interested to see this story in the Houston Chronicle ("County to City: Do not pass go," Oct. 20) about a city-county dispute over using coercive methods to force payment from ticketed drivers...
Rick Perry's execution review method: What Sharon Keller says goes
Posted on October 20, 2009If it weren't for Rick Perry's defensive reaction and attempts to stymie a review of the Todd Willingham arson investigation, I doubt the issue would ever have made it into the political arena. The public supports the death penalty and innocence cases won't/don't sway that view...
Prosecutors seek to thwart post-conviction innocence claims
Posted on October 19, 2009I'm glad to learn that US Attorney General Eric Holder is reviewing a Bush Administration policy of securing plea waivers from federal defendants of their right to post-conviction DNA testing that could prove their innocence. But it's too bad the scope of that review won't extend to Texas prosecutors who seek DNA destruction as part of plea deals...
Judge William Wayne Justice, RIP 1920-2009
Posted on October 18, 2009Having grown up in Tyler, the passing of the late, great federal Judge William Wayne Justice last week hit very close to home.For readers of this blog, Judge Justice will be best known as the jurist who virtually controlled the Texas prison system for nearly two decades in the aftermath of the infamous Ruiz v...
Corsicana Sun hyping bogus Willingham 'confession' shames paper, state
Posted on October 18, 2009Locals in Corsicana are circling the wagons on the Todd Willingham case, and they've enlisted the enthusiastic assistance of the local newspaper, The Corsicana Sun, to their cause. It's hard not to conclude the paper is embarrassing itself, their town and the state with ignorant, hyperdefensive attempts to counter conclusions by arson experts in the Todd Willingham case...
Friday Open Thread
Posted on October 16, 2009I'm taking today away from the blog to focus my attention elsewhere. Use this as an open thread to talk about whatever you want on crime and punishment topics, and/or check out these blogs while I'm away:The Crime ReportChange.org: Criminal JusticeDefending PeopleSimple JusticeSentencing Law & PolicyHasta mañana, amigos.
Pretrial defendants, not convicted felons, are main cause of Howard County jail overcrowding
Posted on October 15, 2009Having tracked county jail overcrowding issues on Grits over the last several years, there's one pass-the-buck excuse I'm sick of hearing from Texas county Sheriffs that wrongly deflects accountability for local actors: The idea that jails are full because already-convicted prisoners are lingering around waiting for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to take them off their hands...
'Scent lineup' evidence may be used in Anthony Graves' capital case
Posted on October 15, 2009Jordan Smith at the Austin Chronicle reports that Fort Bend Deputy Keith Pikett's dogs generated a scent lineup hit in a 17-year old capital murder case. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Anthony Graves' conviction three years ago because the state withheld information that its lone witness had recanted...
American Violet DVD released
Posted on October 15, 2009Pete at Drug War Rant informs us of the DVD release of the feature film American Violet, which is based on a prominent drug-war scandal out of Hearne, in Central Texas near Bryan:American Violet is an important and compelling film based on the real-life incident in Hearne, Texas where a large segment of the African-American population was busted on false drug charges in a massive operation...
NPR: Does Texas have too many cops?
Posted on October 15, 2009NPR interviewed state Rep. Joe Driver and union lobbyist Tom Gaylor from the Texas Municipal Police Association for a story asking if Texas has "too many" police officers, noting that even podiatrists at one point wanted their own licensed cops. Here's a notable excerpt that includes their comments:"Why did the foot doctors need a police agency?" asks Joe Driver, the state representative who was chairman of the committee that denied the Texas board of foot doctors its police force...
Poll: Execution of innocents wouldn't sway death penalty opinions
Posted on October 15, 2009For those hoping the Todd Willingham case (or more generally, the execution of an innocent person) might spark public reconsideration of the death penalty, don't hold your breath. According to Gallup, as reported by Doug Berman:for many Americans, agreement with the assertion that innocent people have been put to death does not preclude simultaneous endorsement of the death penalty...
Human, All Too Human
Posted on October 15, 2009The founder of one of Texas' most successful and widely praised reentry programs - Catherine Rohr of the Prison Entrepreneurship Program - has been banned from Department of Criminal Justice facilities for engaging in sexual relations with ex-prisoners...
Judge Hervey wants "Integrity Unit" to take on arson science
Posted on October 14, 2009Judge Barbara Hervey of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals wants the court's Criminal Justice Integrity Unit she founded to focus on changes in arson science in the last two decades, the Austin Statesman reports ("More arson understanding needed in courts, judge says," Oct...
Proposed Austin traffic ordinances hype fear, generate revenue, without improving safety
Posted on October 14, 2009It looks like the Austin City Council on Oct. 22 is prepared to vote for two ordinances that IMO are clearly more about moneymaking and publicity than safety: A ban on texting while driving and a requirement that cars come no closer than 3 feet to pedestrians, cyclists or other "vulnerable road users...
Good vibes at Tim Cole advisory panel on false convictions, but devil still in details
Posted on October 13, 2009I attended this morning the first meeting of the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions (discussed here), and though it was only an introductory meeting, its overall zeitgeist was positive.Jim Bethke of the Task Force on Indigent Defense chaired the meeting...
Richard Miles released: Defense never told different suspect confessed to third party
Posted on October 13, 2009Richard Miles walked free from a Dallas courtroom yesterday after 14 years in prison for a murder prosecutors now believe was likely committed by someone else. In the Dallas News coverage of his release ("Withheld evidence in Dallas murder case frees man after 14 years," Oct...
Tim Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions meets today
Posted on October 13, 2009The Texas Legislature this year balked at creating a full-blown "Innocence Commission" (largely thanks to opposition from the Governor who vowed to veto a stronger bill), but instead opted to create the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions, which has its first meeting this morning...
Governor's aides sought to change direction of Forensic Commission investigation
Posted on October 12, 2009The Chicago Tribune got former Forensic Science Commission chair Sam Bassett to open up and talk about the pressure Governor Perry's office put on him to influence the "direction" of the scientific evaluation in the Todd Willingham case:Samuel Bassett, whom Perry replaced on the Texas Forensic Science Commission two weeks ago, said he twice was called to meetings with Perry's top attorneys...
Craig Watkins finds national halo a local floodlight
Posted on October 12, 2009AP's Deborah Hastings had a substantial article over the weekend profiling Dallas DA Craig Watkins and the local politics surrounding his 2010 reelection campaign. Here's a notable excerpt:As his re-election campaign rattles to life this fall, Watkins finds the national halo he's been standing under has become more of a local floodlight magnifying frailties and foibles...
Odds and Ends
Posted on October 09, 2009I wanted to point out several recent items that may interest Grits readers:Mental illness and juvenile justiceI regretted not being able to attend a juvenile justice policy discussion at the Texas Public Policy Foundation yesterday (I had to spend my afternoon performing tasks someone would actually pay me for)...
How best to vet old arson innocence claims?
Posted on October 09, 2009I've not been giving credit frequently enough to Dave Mann over at the Texas Observer for the excellent work he's been doing lately exposing flawed arson cases. In particular, he's identified yet another case where a conviction was based solely on flawed arson forensics and the defendant, Alfredo Guardiola, is still sitting in prison after 19 years with another 20 years to go on his sentence for a crime he "almost certainly didn't commit...
Parole board chair Rissie Owens personally liable for rights violation
Posted on October 09, 2009Texas' Board of Pardons and Parole violated the rights of an individual who was required to register as a sex offender as a condition of parole, without so much as a hearing, even though he'd never been convicted of a sex crime, a federal jury found yesterday...
Recent Perry judicial appointments
Posted on October 08, 2009Governor Rick Perry today made headlines by appointing Eva Guzman the first-ever Latina to serve on Texas' Supreme Court (see the press release and initial Houston Chronicle coverage), which also opens up a slot on Texas 14th Court of Appeals in Houston where she previously served...
Dallas man freed, claiming innocence, after police withheld exculpatory evidence
Posted on October 08, 2009Dallas could soon witness its second non-DNA exoneration on District Attorney Craig Watkins' watch, the Dallas News reports ("Dallas inmate set to be freed after buried evidence found," Oct. 8):Dallas County jurors who sent Richard Miles to prison for 40 years never knew another man had been implicated in the same shooting incident...
Domestic pot production best strategy to reduce cartel profits?
Posted on October 08, 2009It appears the economic downturn is achieving public policy goals the federal government could otherwise never dream of accomplishing: Reducing illegal immigration and attacking the economic foundations of Mexican drug cartels.Steep employment declines have dramatically reduced the number of illegal immigrants entering the United States looking for work...
Forensic Science Commission canceling educational roundtables?
Posted on October 07, 2009A Grits commenter points out that the Texas Forensic Science Commission's "Roundtable scheduled for Nov 6 in Austin has been canceled. Meeting materials have been deleted from the FSC site." A quick check of their site confirms that pages about upcoming roundtable events have been removed...
Debating the economic basis for punishment theory
Posted on October 07, 2009I've argued before that the criminal justice system suffers from inappropriately basing its (often false) assumptions about human behavior on an economic price-theory approach, by which I mean the idea that punishment is a "price" for criminal behavior and so increasing punishment will lower "demand" for crime (i...
John Bradley promises 'integrity' on Forensic Commission: Proof will come soon enough
Posted on October 07, 2009Speaking yesterday with the Dallas News ("New chair unsure whether state panel will proceed no flawed case that led to execution in Corsicana fire," Oct. 7), Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley waffled on whether the Texas Forensic Science Commission would go forward with its inquiry anytime soon into flawed arson forensics used in a death penalty case, and he seemed in little hurry to restart the process...
James Woodard pardoned!
Posted on October 01, 2009Congrats to James Woodard, Texas' longest-serving DNA exoneree (28 years) who finally received his formal pardon yesterday from Governor Perry. AP notes that "The official declaration of James Woodard's innocence clears the way for the Dallas man to collect millions of dollars from the state...
More jail inspections unannounced, TCJS creating catalog of best practices
Posted on October 01, 2009Texas Commission on Jail Standards chief Adan Munoz spoke to a group of Rotarians in Sherman and the writeup in the Herald-Democrat contained several interesting tidbits. For starters:Tom Nuckols and Denis Cowhig asked Munoz if he could give any examples of any counties that had adopted policies to reverse increasingly high incarceration rates...
Craig Watkins learns the Golden Rule of politics
Posted on September 30, 2009I've been ignoring the tit for tat feud between the Dallas County Commissioners Court and District Attorney Craig Watkins because it has become personal, petty, boring, and I hoped it'd go away after the county budget passed. But apparently the hard feelings engendered during that and other recent spats have continued to escalate and yesterday the Commissioners Court decided to show Watkins who's boss, hiring private counsel to advise them on an investigation of two constables over Watkins' bitter opposition...
Perry scuttles Willingham arson inquiry with new Forensic Commission appointment: John Bradley
Posted on September 30, 2009Outrageous!It'd be hard to make this up; it seems more like caricature or some tale from days of yore out of Tammany Hall, but it's actually today's news: Governor Rick Perry has ousted the head of the Texas Forensic Science Commission, which had displeased him by soliciting what turned out to be damning expert opinion regarding the Cameron Todd Willingham case (in which supposedly expert arson testimony used to convict Willingham and justify his execution was later debunked by modern science)...
Autopsy caseloads rise thanks to shortage of forensic pathologists
Posted on September 30, 2009Here are two new stories in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's series on forensic errors in Texas autopsies:Autopsy caseloads require stopgap measuresPathology shortage poses concern about autopsiesThe issue of a pathologist shortage was raised prominently in Chapter 9 of the National Academy of Science's report from last spring critiquing the non-scientific basis of modern forensics...
Chief Harold Hurtt: Move along, nothing to see now at Houston crime lab
Posted on September 29, 2009Houston police chief Harold Hurtt had an editorial in the Houston Chronicle recently declaring it a new day a the Houston Crime Lab, that by achieving accreditation the organization had professionalized to the point where it should be cut slack for past abuses...
Add autopsies to list of frequently shoddy forensics
Posted on September 29, 2009The Fort Worth Star-Telegram yesterday launched a series on shoddy forensics in Texas autopsies with a story titled "With little oversight in Texas, autopsies often careless." Here's a tasty excerpt:.over the years, Texas medical examiners have misidentified bodies, botched examinations and had to do a double take on cases of individuals later exonerated by law enforcement...
Harris County Commissioners Court approves public defender office
Posted on September 29, 2009Via press releae from state Sen. Rodney Ellis' office: (Houston , TX )// Harris County Commissioners approved the creation of a public defenders office at today's mid-year review hearing. The decision came after both the District Courts Administrator and the County Courts Manager recommended its creation...
Data don't match Austin police policy claims on investigating citizen complaints
Posted on September 28, 2009It's interesting to learn that the percentage of sustained complaints against police officers has gone up under Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo, but there's something a bit squirrelly about attributing the increase to a new policy having supervisors investigate low-level complaints instead of Internal Affairs...
Collin 'restitution center' closing as failed experment
Posted on September 28, 2009Following a statewide trend toward getting rid of them, Collin County's probation department will soon close its in-house "restitution center," reports the Dallas News. Here's how the story opens:Pay the fine or do the time. That's been the philosophy behind the Collin County Restitution Center...
Meet Phillip Linder: Craig Watkins' 2010 Republican opponent
Posted on September 28, 2009The Dallas Observer has an interview with the only serious, announced Republican in the 2010 Dallas District Attorney's race who will apparently be the guy competing with Craig Watkins for the slot next year: Meet Phillip Linder.Espeically after rookie DA Pat Lykos in Harris County held serve for Republicans while Democrats took judgships countywide in the 2008 elections, the GOP will likely see this race in Dallas and the 2010 county judge contest as their last, best chance for a countywide pushback in Big D...
Elected officials' guide to jail population management
Posted on September 28, 2009Via Bob Cushman, here's a new publication from the National Institute of Corrections, prepared in cooperation with the National Association of Counties, to help counties better cope with jail overcowoding through more aggressive use of pretrial services:Jail Population Management: Elected County Officials' Guide to Pretrial Services (pdf)There are more than a few counties in the state that could stand for their leaders to read and implement the jail-population reduction strategies described in this short manual...
"How to end the slaughter in Juarez?"
Posted on September 28, 2009The title to this post is the headline to a troubling Houston Chonicle story about how resistant drug violence in Juarez has proven to military and police interference. It's also arguably a much more pressing foreign policy question for the United States than anything happening in Afghanistan...
Too little data to draw conclusions about spike in Houston police shootings
Posted on September 28, 2009One of my all-time favorite lines from a Simpsons episode came at the abrupt end of a chaotic story when the family tried to discern what the "moral" to it all was. Finally, Lisa suggested, "Perhaps there is no moral to the story," to which Homer eagerly agreed, replying it was "just a bunch of stuff that happened...
More people accused by dog 'scent lineups' freed, but FBI now using technique
Posted on September 27, 2009Yet more people were identified this week who'd been falsely accused by dogs in "scent lineups"after the Innocence Project of Texas released a new report (pdf) on Fort Bend Sheriff's Deputy Keith Pikett and his bloodhounds. The Houston Chronicle describes the case of Curvis Bickham ("Scent lineups may be failing smell test," Sept...
Politics push toward expanded fingerprinting, biometric profiles
Posted on September 27, 2009Three thematically related stories related to fingerprints caught my eye this morning and may interest Grits readers:Fingerprint database obscures histories, Houston ChronicleConflicts over San Jose police fingerprint network, San Jose MercuryFBI building system that blows away fingerprinting, ComputerworldA common theme for all three is that there's intense political pressure to expand fingerprint systems and integrate them nationally...
I Am Art Acevedo
Posted on September 27, 2009Could the headline to this post, especially if written anonymously in a critical blog comment, lead to third degree felony charges? I didn't mean to harm Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo, but certainly I'd like to bring to ruin his plans to pursue anonymous commenters for potential criminal charges or civil litigation...
DOJ grant pays for peer mentors during post-TYC reentry
Posted on September 27, 2009Here's something they're doing with federal grant funds in South Texas that merits expansion statewide. According to the San Antonio Business Journal:The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention will award Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Texas $625,000 in grant funding over the next three years to provide mentoring services to juvenile offenders being released from Texas Youth Commission facilities...
"Brick City"
Posted on September 26, 2009Last night we watched the first episode of a new documentary from the Sundance Channel, "Brick City,"about fighting crime in Newark, N.J. produced by Forest Whitaker (available in the free movies on demand section for Time Warner subscribers).It had been billed as Newark meets The Wire, though it's not living up to that yet...
Battered escapee was TYC alum
Posted on September 25, 2009In 2007, the Texas Legislature changed the max age for Texas Youth Commission inmates from 21 to 19, sending 19-20 year olds who committed their crimes as juveniles to state prisons. But perhaps in 2011 - after the administration has had time to implement the Sunset bill and get its feet under them after a period of rough transition - lawmakers should rethink that decision...
"How does the governor think Willingham killed his kids if not by arson?"
Posted on September 25, 2009Michael Landauer at the Dallas News Death Penalty Blog poses two absolutely excellent questions about the Cameron Todd Willingham case, where arson testimony used to convict Willingham was later debunked by modern science after his execution for killing his children:"How does the governor think Willingham killed his kids if not by arson?," and "Why is the prosecutor who took Willingham's life smiling?"The question for the governor referenced this story where Perry actually put air quotes around "latter-day supposed experts" when describing to reporters why he still thought Todd Willingham was really guilty, something he said he believed even if the conclusion of arson was wrong...
Prosecutors ask SCOTUS for 'absolute immunity' when fabricating evidence
Posted on September 25, 2009I'm very much looking forward to the oral arguments forthcoming at the US Supreme Court on November 4 regarding Pottawattamie County vs. McGhee, et. al., in which SCOTUS will decide whether prosecutors have "absolute immunity" when they fabricate evidence and present it at trial...
Harris County has big financial incentives to create new public defender
Posted on September 24, 2009The Harris County Commissioner's Court next week (September 29) is scheduled to consider a proposal to create a public defender office, and in preparation the Texas Fair Defense Project yesterday issued a new "white paper" (pdf) detailing benefits the county could expect if it establishes one...
Taser death in Laredo
Posted on September 23, 2009When Tasers first came out they were billed as a non-lethal alternative to firearms.In reality, both parts of that claim were false. People have died from Taser shocks, and far from being an "alternative" to firearms, most police Taser discharges occur in situations where shooting the suspect with a gun would not be justified under standard police policies...
Emptying prisons makes Wired magazine 'Smart List'
Posted on September 23, 2009Earlier this year I was asked by Texas Monthly to submit a "Big Idea' for Texas and I suggested radically reducing the state's prison population:Texas should dramatically slash its prison population and eliminate a majority of felony crimes. We have criminalized too many different activities: Texas has 2,324 separate felonies on the books, including 11 involving oysters...
Corruption, 'cartel' violence rampant in Mexico as drug policy debated in El Paso
Posted on September 23, 2009Here are several stories related to Mexico and the drug war that recently caught my eye. First, check out this coverage from the El Paso Times of a conference on the drug war currently going on in Sun City:Juárez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz: U.S. drug policies need to changeOfficial: Drug routes moved from Colombia to MexicoDrug conference continues todayUTEP drug conference: New cartel methods widen drug war's tollWar on Drugs conference: Legalize marijuana, participants sayMeanwile, the Mexican army has found more evidence of widespread corruption in Nuevo Leon state among police and the press, reports AP:Four people were arrested and $5 million in U...
Texas Innocence Project report discredits unscientific dog 'scent lineups'
Posted on September 22, 2009Yesterday the Innocence Project of Texas released its report criticizing "scent lineups" used by Fort Bend County Sheriff's Deputy Keith Pikett, who as regular readers know has seen his dogs' identification of suspects debunked in several recent, high-profile cases, including two capital murders...
A conservative case for reducing incarceration
Posted on September 21, 2009Via Think Outside the Cage, I was pleased to discover this remarkable editorial from the right-leaning Colorado Springs Gazette analyzing partisan debates over corrections spending in that state ("The case for early prison release plan: We can't afford lock 'em up politics," Sept...
State prisons are Abilene's biggest water user
Posted on September 21, 2009This summer's drought elevated water-usage issues to the fore throughout Texas. Given current population growth and the fact that we're already facing shortages, it's not difficult to predict the crisis will only worsen in the next few years.So I was interested to see this story from the Abilene Reporter News ("Water use likely to rise this year," Sept...
Sex offender registration applies scarlet letter to juveniles
Posted on September 21, 2009The Houston Chronicle today has a feature on the issue of juveniles in the state sex offender registry. Juvenile sex offenders must remain on the registry 10 years after the end of their sentence. Reports the Chron ("A long wait to get past crime," Sept...
Time magazine profiles Texas crimjust reforms
Posted on September 21, 2009Time magazine this week has a feature calling Texas the "kinder, gentler hang 'em high state" thanks to the passage of the Tim Cole compensation act for those convicted and exonerated and legislation to create a new office of capital writs. Here's how the story opens:Tim Cole couldn't tell his own story and so his family recounted the saga to the hard-bitten Texas legislators last spring...
Public views on actual innocence driven by perceptions, not data
Posted on September 20, 2009Here's a particularly interesting result from last week's reader poll regarding how many actually innocent people are currently residing in Texas prisons: 70% of readers chose answers outside the range of the various statistical estimates of innocence...
TYC's football season underway
Posted on September 19, 2009Last year's story about the Grapevine high school that put on a heart-warming reception for the Gainseville Tornadoes football team - one of two made up of students from Texas Youth Commission juvenile detention facilities - will be made into a movie called One Heart, featured on this promo web site...
In the news and around the blogosphere
Posted on September 18, 2009Just a few quick hits before I focus elsewhere this afternoon:Say "Howdy" to The Crime Analyst's Blog out of Bell County, TX. Good stuff there, particularly the ongoing 60 Steps series.Also I just noticed the Vera Institute of Justice has begun its own blog - well worth watching since it appears to be regularly updated...
Bexar seeking probation director's replacement
Posted on September 18, 2009Embattled Bexar County probation Director Bill Fitzgerald may be taking his own sweet time about leaving his post after judges expressed "no confidence" in his services, but FWIW the county is moving forward to find his replacement. I noticed this job posting on the website of the Texas Probation Association:Chief Adult Probation Officer for Bexar CountyThe district and statutory county court judges trying criminal cases in Bexar County are soliciting applications for Chief of the Community Supervision and Corrections Department, responsible for the operation of the county adult probation department and supervision of 400+ employees...
Austin Chief Acevedo takes on the city's real public safety threat: Anonymous internet commenters
Posted on September 18, 2009Apparently all the crime in Texas' capital has been solved, so now, with so much free time on his hands, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo can pursue the really important public safety issues like going after people who criticize him or the department in anonymous blog comments...
Texas Innocence Project report to take on dog scent lineups
Posted on September 18, 2009Looks like we'll learn more next week on the subject of Fort Bend County Sheriff's Deputy Keith Pikett and the "scent lineups" his dogs have performed in some 2,000 criminal cases. From a press release received today via email from my former employers:Innocence Project of Texas to Release Report on Use of Dog Scent Lineups in TexasOn Monday, September 21 the Innocence Project of Texas (IPOT) will be releasing a report on the use of dog-scent lineups in Texas and the career of Fort Bend County Sheriff?s Deputy Keith Pikett, whose work has led to wrongful arrests and the conviction of potentially hundreds of individuals in the state...
Mentally ill prisoners, homeless the focus of media report but not national healthcare debate
Posted on September 17, 2009Josh Rushing from Al Jazeera's English-language news has produced a quite well done, two-part video report on the mentally ill in US prisons, focusing particularly on Texas prisons and the Harris County jail (which is the largest mental institution in Texas, according to the report)...
Time to improve procedures on police lineups
Posted on September 17, 2009Because the Texas Legislature left eyewitness ID reforms hanging this year during the partisan meltdown at the end of session, for now it's up to local Texas police and sheriffs departments to address the problem, as Dallas PD did earlier this year.For those who won't, there's a high probability Texas will pass legislation in 2011 mandating improved eyewitness ID reforms...
Lockdown at max-security units aimed at contraband; TDCJ seeks bids on cell phone locators
Posted on September 17, 2009In yet another effort to combat contraband smuggling, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice instituted a lockdown yesterday at 14 maximum security units, reports Mike Ward at the Austin Statesman:More than 35,000 convicts at 14 of Texas? toughest prisons have been placed on lockdown status in a new crackdown on contraband smuggling ? the largest in months, officials just confirmed...
Shaken baby diagnosis from biased medical examiner unsubstantiated, new autopsy says
Posted on September 16, 2009This blog focuses frequently on the subject of dubious forensics like that used in many older arson cases and so-called "scent lineups" performed by dogs. The Houston Chronicle this week published a story on another branch of questionable forensic science: The diagnosis by medical examiners of so called "shaken-baby syndrome," which has resulted in several recent exonerations in Harris County after former associate medical examiner Patricia Moore's work on the subject was discredited...
Disgrace! CCA lets stand egregious official misconduct in capital murder case
Posted on September 16, 2009Let's face it: The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has become a flat-out embarrassment.Most recently, the CCA decided not to rule whether a judge and prosecutor having an affair during a capital murder trial tainted the process in the Charles Dean Hood case, the Dallas News reports today...
Amber Alert announcement on TV a pointless exercise
Posted on September 15, 2009Last night watching television, several times an announcement flashed across the screen for a so-called Amber Alert informing us that a young girl from somewhere in Texas was missing and listing counties far and wide across the state where she might be with her abductor...
TX Civil Rights Project Publishes Jail Stories from Hurricane Ike
Posted on September 15, 2009On the anniversary of Hurricane Ike, the Texas Civil Rights Project yesterday released this 34-page report (pdf) on the staff and more than 1,000 inmates who remained in the Galveston County Jail throughout the storm despite a mandatory evacuation order...
Police have dangerous jobs but some occupations more fatal
Posted on September 15, 2009The latest federal Census of Fatal Occupational Industries came out last month, and I was interested to learn that the fatality rate among police officers and sheriff's deputies declined more than 20% in 2008 from 2007 - from 19.8 deaths per 100,000 full-time equivalent jobs down to a rate of 15...
Prosecutor who helped convict capital murderer would now trust him as next-door neighbor
Posted on September 14, 2009Michael Eubanks was convicted of capital murder 31 years ago but recently received parole and was profiled in the Houston Chronicle yesterday. Eubanks was convicted before Texas law changed to require life without parole as the only alternative to death in capital cases...
'Texas criminal justice system has major flaws': Estimating innocent people in prison
Posted on September 14, 2009The title of this post is the headline to a Corpus Christi Caller Times editorial reacting to the slew of recent DNA exonerations in Texas as well as the Cameron Willingham case. The sentiments expressed, it seem to me, represent a growing consensus that Texas justice continues to suffer from serious problems...
Open records reveal Grayson Sheriff's disdain for private jail plans
Posted on September 14, 2009Kathy Williams at the Sherman Herald-Democrat is doing an excellent job covering the roller coaster ride over building a new Grayson County Jail after police unions scuttled a November election with threatened open meetings litigation. Williams has been especially adept using the open records act to dig deeper into the local controversy...
Recommended Blog Reading
Posted on September 13, 2009A few must-read blog offerings from other writers:Defending People: Harris County Jail Hell. When inmates and the Justice Department agree, Mark Bennett takes their word over Harris County's.Drug War Rant: Pete Guither revisits the Supreme Court's Caballes case...
Arson cases a 'tangle between science and supposition'
Posted on September 13, 2009Christy Hoppe at the Dallas News today has a feature on innocence claims involving faulty arson science, focusing on five specific cases including Cameron Willingham's. Writes Hoppe:Scrutiny of arson cases highlights a tangle between science and supposition...
'Ex-cons having a tough time finding jobs'
Posted on September 13, 2009The title of this post is the headline to a Fort Worth Star Telegram piece from their business section published today. Here's a notable excerpt:The job hunt, tough by any measure, is worse for ex-offenders.About 6,000 people are released from state and federal prisons back to Tarrant County each year, not counting people emerging from county jail or ones who get deferred adjudication...
Fending off attacks on open government
Posted on September 11, 2009I wanted to mention a couple of notable open government cases that merit readers attention.First, updating the case discussed in this post, the 5th Circuit ruled that two city councilmembers who'd challenged Texas' open meetings act no longer had standing to do so because they're not in office anymore...
Did chaplain smuggle threatening letter out of death row?
Posted on September 11, 2009A TDCJ chaplain admitted to smuggling letters out of death row on behalf of inmates, possibly including one that containing a veiled against a member of state Sen. John Whitmire's family. He will likely be fired, AP reports :A death-row chaplain has acknowledged helping a condemned inmate smuggle out letters...
Travis County sponsors in-jail job fair
Posted on September 10, 2009I'm particularly pleased to see this story about an in-jail job fair sponsored by a religious nonprofit in cooperation with Travis County Sheriff Greg Hamilton. What an excellent idea! Reported the Statesman ("In the county jail, inmates look for a job," Sept...
Two Tarrant capital cases tainted by prosecutor misconduct
Posted on September 10, 2009A former Tarrant County prosecutor who retired amidst misconduct allegations last year committed so-called "Brady" violations (i.e., withholding exculpatory evidence from the defense) in two different capital murder cases, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports...
The Two-Millionth Grits Reader
Posted on September 10, 2009It took almost five years to get there, but this afternoon Grits for Breakfast surpassed the two-million visitor mark, according to SiteMeter. Lately the blog's been averaging about 1,800-2,000 unique visitors per weekday. Thanks to everyone for reading!Grits' five-year anniversary will be October 6; maybe between these two milestones there needs to be some sort of celebratory fiesta, whaddya think?
CLEAT will sue to delay Grayson Jail vote
Posted on September 10, 2009The Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas (CLEAT) will sue to halt thevote in November on expanding the Grayson County Jail because the announcement for the commissioners court meeting where the date was set was posted one minute late, reports the Sherman Herald-Democrat...
Why 'carrots trump sticks,' or, why 'winners don't punish'
Posted on September 10, 2009Does punishment or reward work better at influencing human behavior? It's a question that's seemingly fundamental to what goes on in the justice system, but one that's seldom subjected to empirical analysis. So I found this discussion of public-goods games by Ed Yong at Not Exactly Rocket Science a fascinating train of thought...
Hiring Bubba in Bandera
Posted on September 09, 2009Bandera County is hiring new jailers to staff an expanded detention center, but according to Judith Pannebaker at the Bandera County Courier:In Bandera County at least, it appears the best hedge against a still-failing economy is to have a relative or friend already hard at work for the county...
Cameron Todd Willingham: Required Reading
Posted on September 09, 2009I thought it'd be useful to round up some commentary on the Willingham case, which has drawn a huge amount of interest.The recent flurry of attention began thanks to a new report from an expert commissioned by the Texas Forensic Science Commission and an extensive article in the New Yorker by David Gann, which vetted the arson testimony and other evidence in the case...
New TYC Ombudsman
Posted on September 09, 2009From AP: Gov. Rick Perry has named Catherine Evans of Dallas to be the Texas Youth Commission independent ombudsman. Evans is a past chair of the TYC Advisory Board, a former state district judge and former commissioner of the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission...
Catfight between Dallas DA, Commissioners presages 2010 elections
Posted on September 08, 2009Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins will draw a Republican opponent in 2010, the Dallas News reports, with the news coming at a time when the state's first African American DA is under more serious fire than ever in his brief political career.It's hard to imagine those two facts are unrelated, but there's also an extent to which Watkins brought some of the extra misery onto himself...
TCJC brings news on probation, parole, juvie justice and the drug war
Posted on September 08, 2009These interesting items were mentioned in an email received this morning from the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition: JJ Report Released TodayCoalition for Juvenile Justice (CJJ) released its first-ever national report on state compliance with the federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA)...
New threats to Whtimire's family punctuate failed TDCJ contraband crackdown; Might cell phone locators work better than jammers?
Posted on September 08, 2009The death row inmate who called state Sen. John Whtimre and set off last year's scandal about cell phones on prisons didn't get convicted of capital murder because he's a really smart guy.Somebody has been posting Richard Tabler's letters from prison online and in one of them written in June (no longer on the site), amidst complaints that his mother and sister are being prosecuted for helping him get a cell phone, he issued yet another veiled threat to the family of the Senate Dean, wondering ominously about the wellbeing of Whitmire's ex-wife...
Breakout! Burnet jail escape ill-timed for Grayson jail builders
Posted on September 08, 2009In love and in politics, timing is often everything, and for jail builders in Grayson County, the timing of last week's jail break in Burnet County couldn't be worse.The Burnet County Jail is the only one in Texas currently operated by Southwestern Correctional LLC, which is based in Louisiana and operates eight facilities there (mostly for the state prison system) under the name La Salle Corrections...
Data on Texas' inmates access to the courts
Posted on September 08, 2009I thought these 2008 data from TDCJ about prisoners' access to the courts were interesting, supplying metrics for broadly comparing in-prison writ writing activity to the level of outside legal representation for prisoners. In 2008 at TDCJ, there were:608,053 offender visits to law library sessions247,819 items of legal research material were delivered17,035 notary signatures were provided1,456 offender/offender legal visits were conducted1,314 attorney/offender phone calls were conducted527 court teleconference inquiries via phone were conducted81 court teleconference inquiries via video conference were conducted4,083 attorney visits were conducted969 attorney representative visits were conducted54,310 court forms were issued4,377 court certificates of impoverishmentPresumably the State Counsel for Offenders accounts for some of those attorney visits...
Dallas 'juking' crime statistics
Posted on September 07, 2009After taking heat for many years about Dallas having the highest per-capita crime rate in the nation, the Dallas Police Department took decisive action: They changed the reporting procedures so some crimes aren't included in the totals.The result: "This year, Dallas shed its distinction as having the highest crime rate of U...
'Round the blogs
Posted on September 06, 2009While I'm focused elsewhere, check out what's going on at these blogs, which all have excellent recent posts related to topics Grits covers:Dallas News Crime BlogDrug War RantSentencing Law and PolicySimple JusticeStand Down TexasWhite Collar Crime ProfHope you're enjoying your Labor Day weekend!
Some states actually shutting down prison units
Posted on September 05, 2009According to this Wall Street Journal story ("Lights Out at the Penitentiary," Sept. 5) and accompanying graphics, Michigan will close eight prison units because of budget cuts, paroling some prisoners early and moving the rest to other units. The Journal views this as part of a larger trend:For three decades, state and local governments built and filled jails to make good on promises to get tough on crime...
Violence explodes as Perry skips Border Governors' Conference
Posted on September 04, 2009Governor Rick Perry this week skipped out on the binational Border Governors' Conference in Monterrey, sending Deputy Chief of Staff Kathy Walt in his stead. But surely there can't be many other priorities more important than Texas' border for the Governor to be focused on? Rather than go to Monterrey to discuss security and economic issues critical to the state, on Wednesday the Governor was in Lubbock to criticize President Obama's health care plan...
Texas DNA exonerees will soon receive compensation
Posted on September 04, 2009I was pleased to notice this AP report about Texas' new law improving compensation for falsely convicted men who've been proven innocence by DNA evidence. This was an issue I spent alot of time on this spring at the Lege on behalf of the Innocence Project of Texas...
New Youth Commission board named
Posted on September 03, 2009Governor Perry has named the new board of the Texas Youth Commisison, which met on Tuesday for the first time and whose first act was to permanently hire Cherie Townsend as executive director.Here's the press release announcing the appointments. The new board chair and another member are ministers...
Grits chosen among 'Best of Austin'
Posted on September 03, 2009Thanks to the Austin Chronicle for selecting Grits as one of their "Critics' Picks" in their annual Best of Austin awards. Here's the relevant entry:Best Tales of Jailhouse Blues: Grits for Breakfast Next time someone tells you that the Texas courts are bastions of blind justice and the penal system works perfectly, tell ?em to go read what Scott Henson wrote...
California's partisan prison meltdown: Why Texas didn't go there
Posted on September 02, 2009It's been fascinating to watch from afar California's "perfect storm" regarding its prison system. They face massive overcrowding, with double the number of prisoners their facilities were designed for. A federal court has ordered them to release 40,000 prisoners or spend billion more on prisoner healthcare, a case they're appealing to the US Supreme Court...
Older offenders driving TDCJ healthcare costs
Posted on September 02, 2009Texas' Correctional Managed Health Care Committee meets in Dallas next week and they've posted the backup material related to their agenda online. (Large file - 169-page pdf.) Here are a few highlights that jumped out at me from that lengthy document:Correctional managed care in Texas lost a total of $24...
CPS raid on Houston's underage moms would dwarf Great Eldorado Polygamist Roundup
Posted on September 01, 2009Here are a few disparate items to chew on this morning:Get ready for the CPS raid on HoustonLast year Texas' CPS accompanied by dozens of armed police raided the YFZ Ranch and seized more than 400 children on the sole basis that some of the children had allegedly been married and impregnated as young as 14 (a practice that was legal in Texas with parental consent until 2005)...
Central repository created at TCLEOSE for racial profiling data
Posted on September 01, 2009Here's a happy tidbit I'd missed that the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition's Ana Yañez Correa tells me was amended to the TCLEOSE Sunset bill (HB 3389) in the final days of the session:Texas finally created a central repository for compiling and comparing local racial profiling data gathered by police officers at traffic stops...
Cameron Todd Willingham: Debating his 'innocence'
Posted on August 31, 2009The Cameron Willingham case promises to become one of the most hotly debated capital cases in Texas history, being hailed as it is as the first example of a demonstrably innocent person being executed.Others, like the judge in the case, insist Willingham was guilty even if the forensics were flawed...
Jail Standards Commission altered needs assessment for Grayson County Jail
Posted on August 31, 2009According to Kathy Williams at the Sherman Herald Democrat ("How many beds needed at Grayson County Jail?," Aug. 30), the Texas Commission on Jail Standards increased its estimates for how many jail beds Grayson County would need in the near future after prodding by a private contractor...
Truth in Sentencing Budgets: How the Lege boosts prison expenses without paying for it
Posted on August 31, 2009At the Dallas News, Terrence Stutz provides that paper's biennial recounting of new criminal penalty increases passed by the Texas Legislature that go into effect tomorrow ("In Texas, penalties rise for senior fraud, graffiti, drive by shootings," Aug...
Sam Sparks v. Rissie Owens: Federal judge may unmask secretive parole process
Posted on August 31, 2009The Austin Statesman's Mike Ward brings word ("Court cases forcing change at parole agency," Aug. 31) of a clash this week between US District Judge Sam Sparks and an attorney from the Board of Pardons and Parole:U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks had heard enough...
TDCJ dips into line staff raises for higher supervisor pay
Posted on August 29, 2009There's little doubt the Texas Legislature primarily intended upcoming pay raises for Texas prison guards primarily for the rank and file. That was clear both before and during the time the Lege was in session. But now Mike Ward at the Statesman reports TDCJ is shifting that money around to give larger raises to supervisors ("Prison guards say pay raise not as much as promised," Aug...
Drug war runs on oceans of cash: A big fish swims free
Posted on August 29, 2009I was amazed in 2007 when the Mexican police found more than $200 million in US currency linked to a drug cartel stacked up in the suburban Mexico City residece owned by a Chinese businessman living in New York, but I'm even more astonished to learn that American prosecutors don't want to pursue the case...
North Carolina Supreme Court finds ex-felons have gun rights; Texas Constitution has stronger language, could it happen here?
Posted on August 29, 2009Eugene Volokh at the Volokh Conspiracy and Doug Berman at Sentencing Law and Policy bring word of an opinion issued yesterday in Britt v. State (available here) by the North Carolina Supreme Court finding that some felons have a "right to bear arms." The case involved a man with a felony drug conviction from 1979 with a clean history thereafter...
"Just keep grinnin' - We're winnin'!": Prosecutors debate the drug war
Posted on August 28, 2009Texas prosecutors on a comment string titled "Just keep grinnin' - We're winnnin'!" have been engaged in one of the more frank discussions I've seen among working law enforcement types about the efficacy of the war on drugs. The string was begun with just a couple of comments in 2004, but then updated recently (new comments bring a thread up to the top of their user system) when Mexico acted recently to decriminalize small amounts of drugs...
Texting ban ignores road dangers that are more common, just as risky
Posted on August 28, 2009Utterly predictably, the Austin City Council yesterday unanimously approved moving forward with the creation of a ban on texting while driving, but there were some interesting tidbits in this morning's news coverage. According to the Austin Statesman:Council Member Bill Spelman asked whether the ban would apply to police officers, who have computers in their patrol cars...
At TDCJ, Wiccan is 'non-denominational'
Posted on August 27, 2009Some readers may be interested in discussing the debate over an inmate in South Texas whose sued claiming he's being denied the right to perform Wiccan religious services. Reported the Brownsville Herald:Charles Roberts, 28, of Brownsville, alleges he has asked several times for religious books, pentagrams and a person to lead Wiccan services at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice?s Lopez Unit but has received no assistance from the prison?s chaplain...
Proposed Austin texting ban ignores commuters, reality, to get more revenue
Posted on August 27, 2009Austin's City Council today will consider whether to ban texting while driving as well as a new law requiring a 3 foot separation between drivers and pedestrians, cyclists or other road users, the Austin Statesman reported this week. Councilmember Mike Martinez began floating the idea of a local texting ban last year but said he wanted to see how bills fared at the state Legislature first...
Corrupt Sheriff sentenced to five years for assisting drug traffickers
Posted on August 27, 2009One of the Texas border Sheriffs who was receiving millions in grant funds from Governor Rick Perry's border security program was sentenced to more than half a decade in the federal hoosgow for conspiring with drug cartels to smuggle narcotics through his county...
Did Judge Kevin Fine cross the line questioning a rape victim? Your answer may say a lot about you
Posted on August 26, 2009I couldn't disagree more with Lisa Falkenberg's take on the much-ballyhooed instance of Harris County District Judge Kevin Fine ("After rapist convicted, judge grills the victim," Aug. 25), who Lisa criticized for asking questions about possible consent of a rape victim recently during the sentencing portion of a trial in which he would be required to set a penalty...
Why so little angst over Mexican decriminalizaiton of small drug amounts?
Posted on August 26, 2009I wonder why Mexico's recent move to decriminalize small amounts of drugs, which passed with little controversy this summer, hasn't received the same howl of protest as when it was suggested a few years ago? Time magazine even suggests their new law "may set an example" for other nations...
New ABA ethics opinion requires more disclosure from prosecutors than constitutional obligations
Posted on August 26, 2009Alexandra Natapoff at the Snitching Blog brings word of a recent but little-publicized American Bar Association opinion (pdf) defining the scope of prosecutors' ethical duty to disclose information favorable to the defense. As she describes it, the new rule:is more demanding than constitutional Brady disclosure requirements; it covers all information favorable to the defense, not just evidence; it is up to the defense, not the prosecution, to evaluate the utility of the information; the government must disclose information as soon as is reasonably practical, and the defendant cannot waive these rights or absolve the prosecutor of her disclosure duties...
A cost-benefit nightmare: One crime solved per 1,000 surveillance cameras
Posted on August 25, 2009I've argued many times before that surveillance cameras in public spaces provide little crime fighting bang for the buck, often citing Britain's example. Now out of the UK comes this news, via the BBC, showing how little crime fighting benefit that nation has seen from its massive investment in CCTV:Only one crime was solved by each 1,000 CCTV cameras in London last year, a report into the city's surveillance network has claimed...
Shoddy forensics + jailhouse snitch = possible false conviction, execution in capital arson case
Posted on August 25, 2009The Chicago Tribune reports that a consultant hired by the Texas Forensic Science Commission found the arson testimony that secured the conviction of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was later executed for a fire that killed his children, was shoddy and unscientific ("Cameron Todd Willingham: Expert says fire for which father was executed was not arson," Aug...
Harris County to DOJ Jail Monitors: Buzz Off
Posted on August 25, 2009This deserves a full read and more extensive commentary when I have time, but for now let me just post the link: Via email, I learn that Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan today sent a 454-page response including exhibits (large pdf) to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, bitterly disputing claims by the DOJ Civil Rights Division that large numbers of deaths, poor healthcare, inadequate mental health services and a pattern of violence in the county jail violate inmates' constitutional rights...
USAA cancels insurance due to spousal incarceration
Posted on August 25, 2009A reader sent me this account via email and I thought it was worth sharing (excerpted to protect the writer's identity):I don't know if you are familiar with USAA. It was originally the United States Army Automobile Association. It is now both an insurance and banking operation that is headquartered in San Antonio...
Harris jail building scheme an improper use of tax-increment financing
Posted on August 24, 2009Voters rejected a new jail last year, but the Harris County Commissioners Court wants to shove one down their throat, anyway, reports the Houston Chronicle ("Deal on jail, stadium, Dome in homestretch," Aug. 24), using a tax-increment financing scheme:The city of Houston and Harris County are negotiating a deal that could pave the way for construction of a new soccer stadium, a new jail and the redevelopment of the Astrodome, according to officials taking part in the talks...
DPS spending millions on TDEX database while driver license lines lengthen
Posted on August 24, 2009I'd mentioned over the weekend the Public Safety Commission's vote on Friday to revamp the Driver Responsibility surcharge to create amnesty and incentive programs. But a couple of other interesting items came up at the meeting that deserve Grits readers' attention...
Proliferation of police agencies problematic
Posted on August 23, 2009The Austin Statesman today published a piece titled "A proliferation of police agencies in Texas" describing problems created by the growing number of licensed peace officers at tiny, specialized agencies with little oversight. Here's how it begins:The Texas State Board of Pharmacy, which licenses and disciplines pharmacists, has its own...
Needless pretrial detention main cause of Harris jail overcrowding
Posted on August 23, 2009In the Houston Chronicle today, Lise Olsen has a story ("Thousands languish in crowded jail") focused on the overuse of pretrial detention for petty defendants. Here's how the story opens:More than half of the 11,500 inmates crammed into the Harris County Jail have not yet been found guilty of a crime but await their day in court confined with convicted criminals in conditions that repeatedly flunk state and federal safety inspections...
Dallas PD moves to sequential, blind lineups
Posted on August 22, 2009Though legislation that would have required similar changes in eyewitness ID policies at all Texas police agencies died in the end-of-session meltdown in the House of Representatives, the Dallas Police Department is moving ahead with a "sequential blind" lineup for photo arrays shown to witness...
Public Safety Commission backs Driver Responsibility revamp
Posted on August 22, 2009I must say, I've seldom been as pleased at being rejected as I was yesterday when the Texas Public Safety Commission formally voted to deny the Grits' peitition for rulemaking regarding creation of indigency, amnesty and incentive programs for the so-called "Driver Responsibility" fee...
DPS to propose its own Driver Responsibility "indigency" program alongside (instead of?) citizen petition
Posted on August 21, 2009I'm headed up this morning for a meeting of the Texas Public Safety Commission to discuss the Driver Responsibility Program and Grits' recently submitted petition for rulemaking during their public comment period. (On good authority, I understand state Sen...
Get The Picture? Image conscious departments discipline cops
Posted on August 21, 2009A couple of recent, thematically related items cracked me up.In the small, Southeast Texas town of Taft, a couple of officers will be disciplined but not terminated (after threats to do so and much media hoopla) for participating in a (very bad) faux gangsta rap video put out by some local wannabes...
"Earned time" in Texas not reducing costs as in other states
Posted on August 20, 2009Yesterday I ran across a new report (July) from the National Conference of State Legislatures titled "Cutting Corrections Costs: Earned Time Policies for State Prisoners" (pdf), and was somewhat surprised to see Texas listed among states with supposedly more progressive policies for "earned time...
Schwarzenegger should follow Perry's lead on drug task force system
Posted on August 20, 2009Counterintuitively, given that the state is in the midst of its worst fiscal crisis in decades, the California Emergency Management Agency yesterday approved (pdf) expanded funding for multi-jurisdictional drug task forces using new federal stimulus money, but judging from Texas' experience that's a bad decision...
Why Sharon Keller Must Go: In Her Own Words
Posted on August 20, 2009Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller testified yesterday that she would do nothing different if presented again with the same situation that caused the Commission on Judicial Conduct to initiate removal proceedings against her...
Sharon Keller on the dock
Posted on August 19, 2009Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller was forcefully questioned yesterday about the details of her decision not to accept Michael Richard's last minute appeal on the night of his execution. This exchange from the Austin Statesman gets down to the crux of the issue:Keller testified that she did not believe the request fell under the court's rules because it was an administrative matter ? a question about whether the clerk's office should stay open late ? and not a substantive question relating to the merits of Richard's case...
Natapoff launches 'Snitching Blog'
Posted on August 19, 2009I'm pleased to learn that one of my favorite thinkers on criminal justice topics - Loyola (CA) law prof Alexandra Natapoff - has launched the "Snitching Blog" to focus on issues surrounding confidential informants (something I've encouraged her to do for at least the last three years!)...
'Can these puppets prevent juvenile crime?'
Posted on August 19, 2009The title of this post is the headline of an interesting item from Change.org's Criminal Justice Blog, where Matt Kelley points to:a video of a talk by Theodore Beauchaine, a psychology professor at the University of Washington, who says that brain science can predict criminal activity in some kids and should be a factor in targeting treatment...
Not soon enough: Bexar probation director out in January
Posted on August 18, 2009Bexar probation director Bill Fitzgerald has announced he'll resign his post in January, though he assured the SA Express-News that "his resignation has nothing to do with the no-confidence vote by the misdemeanor judges or the bribery investigation, or multiple wrongful termination lawsuits by former employees...
Punitive approach to economic crimes only makes problems worse
Posted on August 18, 2009Readers may be interested in this press release (pdf) from DPS describing new traffic laws that take effect on September 1.The release mentions an important bill that I'd somehow completely missed during the legislative session - HB 2012 by Vaught - which is likely to negatively impact counties' jail and indigent defense costs...
A conservative critique of 'socialism' in the justice system
Posted on August 18, 2009Thanks to Murray for turning me on to Houston criminal defense attorney Troy McKinney's new blog, Law-4-Lunch, which is presently topped off with this exceptional post titled "The Socialism of Personal Accountability." Here's a notable excerpt:We are becoming a socialist state when it comes to personal accountability...
Teen drug court in Beaumont diverts youth from TYC
Posted on August 18, 2009I was interested to learn that Jefferson County (Beaumont) is using a drug court model in juvenile court, according to KBMT-TV:Jefferson County's new Teen Drug Court [is] sponsored by the judges who operate the county's family court program.It pairs kids with mentors and checks on their progress on a weekly basis...
Sharon Keller misconduct trial more about judicial activism than the death penalty
Posted on August 17, 2009Presiding Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Sharon Keller's ethics trial begins today in San Antonio. Here are previews from the Austin Statesman and the SA Express News.Unfortunately, this hearing is being portrayed by both sides of the capital punishment debate as being primarily about the death penalty, though at least prosecutors are keeping their eye on the ball...
Perry names Lubbock Sheriff to parole board
Posted on August 17, 2009After Governor Perry's last nominee to the parole board was shot down by the Texas Senate, he's made an interim appointment likely to gain easy confirmation in 2011: Lubbock County Sheriff David Gutierrez resigned his post today to take a seat on the parole board...
Dogs especially good at interpreting cues from people
Posted on August 17, 2009In light of recent critiques of Fort Bend Deputy Keith Pikett's "scent lineups" using bloodhounds, I was interested to see this USA Today story about dogs' ability to pick up subtle cues from their handlers:"Dogs evolved with humans, and a number of studies have suggested they are particularly sensitive to human cues," says psychologist William Roberts of Canada's Dalhousie University...
Probation numbers expanded even more than prisons
Posted on August 16, 2009Via Doc Berman, I was fascinated by this telling chart, which accompanied an op ed by Charles Blow in yesterday's New York Times, depicting national growth in the four major categories that make up the correctional poppulation over a 25-year stretch: Offenders in prisons, jail, on parole, and on probation (or in Texas statutes, "community supervision")...
Rethinking 'America's Unjust Sex Laws'
Posted on August 16, 2009Yesterday in the grocery store I noticed the cover story on this week's Economist is a feature on "America's Unjust Sex Laws." Doc Berman recently provided links to the two main stories:Unjust and ineffective America's unjust sex lawsI particularly appreciated the observation that "The registry is a gold mine for lazy journalists...
Good news for once: Texas among national leaders at reducing incarceration rate
Posted on August 15, 2009I couldn't find a way to post the graphic, but take a look at the fascinating chart on page 5 of this DOJ Bulletin (pdf) depicting the change in states' incarceration rate per 100,000 residents over the period 200-2007. Only New York reduced its incarceration rate more than Texas...
Harris jail loses doc slot as federal litigation looms
Posted on August 15, 2009In June of this year, the US Justice Department issued a findings letter to Sheriff Adrian Garcia about the Harris County Jail declaring that "Because of crowding, administrative weaknesses, and resource limits, the Jail does not provide constitutionally adequate care to meet the serious medical needs of detainees with chronic illness...
Evidence mounts against dog handler, scent lineups
Posted on August 14, 2009Depositions in civil litigation against Fort Bend County dog handler Keith Pikett and his use of "scent lineups" have revealed that the Deputy apparently misled the court in the past about his academic credentials, falsely claiming in a capital murder trial that he had a degree in chemistry from Syracuse...
Friday Texas Bribery Roundup
Posted on August 14, 2009I continue to be astonished by the large number of bribery cases cropping up around the state, both in and out of the criminal justice arena. Here are several items that recently caught my eye:Old-school police protection racketA Dallas police officer operating a protection racket was convicted of bribery in May, reports Tanya Eiserer, and sentenced to 8 years deferred-adjudication probation with a $1,000 fine after extorting protection payments from a merchant on his beat...
Texan named President of NACDL
Posted on August 14, 2009Via the Blog of Legal Times, congrats to San Antonio attorney Cynthia Orr on becoming the new President of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. (I've met Ms. Orr previously, though I doubt she'd remember it.)What's more, says the BLT, "The defense lawyers? association has chosen another Texan, Jim Lavine, as its president-elect...
California riots while Texas prisons long ago desegregated
Posted on August 13, 2009The above photo from the LA Times depicts the aftermath of race riots at a prison unit in Chino, CA:It was the kind of explosive violence threatened throughout the state's 33 prisons, which are packed with nearly twice as many inmates as they were built to hold...
Shipping inmates to other counties won't 'lower' Harris jail population, just scatter it
Posted on August 13, 2009Given that the Harris County Jail has been overcrowded for years and the feds are about to sue them for failing to meet minimum constitutional standards, I don't have a problem on its face with rookie Democratic Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia's decision to ship more inmates to other counties...
Paddling Preferable to Juvenile Justice System?
Posted on August 12, 2009Whether to paddle kids is an intensely personal family decision, but as long as it's done formalistically, not in anger, and with parents' permission, I don't have great concern to learn from the Austin Statesman that:Texas is one of only 20 states that still permits corporal punishment...
Anticipated early death and youth crime
Posted on August 12, 2009From the blog Changing Lives, Changing Minds I found this sad, research-driven commentary by an associate criminology professor from Georgia State on how expectations among youth affect their behavior, particularly their willingness to commit violence, reporting results from surveys and interviews of inner city youth in Atlanta: For these young men, a sense of ?futurelessness? breeds a lack of concern for the consequences of their actions...
Federal judge: Parole board may have improperly labeled thousands as 'sex offenders'
Posted on August 12, 2009While I was out of town last week, federal District Judge Sam Sparks issued an important ruling criticizing the secretive process by which the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole makes decisions about release conditions for sex offenders. Here's how the story by Mike Ward began in Friday's Austin Statesman:A federal judge on Thursday issued a stern rebuke to state corrections officials for the way they classify some parolees as sex offenders even though the defendants have never been convicted of sex crimes...
Juarez Mayor: Release immigrant criminals to their homes, not at the border
Posted on August 12, 2009The Juarez Mayor says US deportation policies are making it harder to rein in violent drug cartels in that violence-plagued city. At a high-level border security conference in El Paso, according to the EP Times:Juárez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz said Tuesday that dumping thousands of U...
Judges express 'no confidence' in Bexar probation chief
Posted on August 12, 2009While Bexar County District Judges will have the final say, a majority of misdemeanor court judges issued a no-confidence vote yesterday for Bexar probation director Bill Fitzgerald. Reported the San Antonio Express News ("Misdemeanor judges vote to fire probation chief," Aug...
States slashing prison costs, closing units
Posted on August 11, 2009At least 23 states cut prison spending in their most recent legislative session, reports Stateline.org:The national recession is taking its toll on what had been one of the fastest-growing areas of state government spending: prisons. Even though state corrections budgets have ballooned in the past two decades amid a surging U...
Did Austin police commit crime in 'bait car' episode?
Posted on August 11, 2009I wrote the other day about the Austin PD's "bait car" program in which they left a vehicle with the windows down and the keys in the ignition for several days in a residential neighborhood to entice thieves. In the comments to that post, an alert reader pointed to this page on the Austin Police Department website that claims, "Leaving your key in an unattended motor vehicle is a crime in Texas" (#7)...
NPR on Texas' probation reforms
Posted on August 11, 2009Texas House Corrections Committee Chairman Jerry Madden and I were both interviewed for a story on NPR's "Marketplace" that ran this morning. Not much new here for regular Grits readers, of course, but I'm glad to see Texas' de-incarceration reforms getting national play.
Public transport, less restrictive zoning would reduce DWI
Posted on August 11, 2009There's been lots of discussion lately about DWI enforcement, with Harris County implementing a new so-called "diversion" program that really diverts more people to jail and Dallas preparing to expand its "no refusal" blood draw program full-time in September...
TCJC seeks volunteer help with inmate correspondence
Posted on August 11, 2009After recently losing grant funds and employees in the aftermath of the Madoff scandal, the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition is looking for volunteers to help manage and respond to inmate correspondence. Here's a description (pdf) sent to me by their executive director, Ana Yañez Correa: TCJC seeking volunteers to assist with inmate correspondence...
Mentally ill offenders strain juveile system
Posted on August 10, 2009The title of this post is the headline of an informative New York Times article published today by Solomon Moore on the impact of mentally ill offenders in the juvenile system, including quotes from a Texas Youth Commission psychiatrist. Here's an excerpt:As cash-starved states slash mental health programs in communities and schools, they are increasingly relying on the juvenile corrections system to handle a generation of young offenders with psychiatric disorders...
Judges have tools to reduce Harris jail overcrowding, if they'll use them
Posted on August 10, 2009An excellent op ed by attorney Rob Fickman appeared in yesterday's Houston Chronicle (rightly) blaming Harris County judges for jail overcrowding. He provides specific suggestions for how judges must change their behavior if the county hopes to solve the problem without building a new jail that voters don't want:?Judges setting bonds must remember that the people they are setting bond for are, whether they believe it or not, presumed innocent...
Border security and the drug war: Corruption mounts, resources stretched
Posted on August 10, 2009Here are several interesting items I noticed this morning related to the drug war and the politics of border enforcement:AP: Border corruption on the riseThe Associated Press says law-enforcement corruption on the US side is increasing. Said Mexican President Felipe Calderon:"To get drugs into the United States the one you need to corrupt is the American authority, the American customs, the American police ? not the Mexican...
Houston swamped with warrants for petty offenses
Posted on August 10, 2009I was interested for a number of reasons to see a story in today's Houston Chronicle by Renee Lee titled "Wanted: Residents with 1.7 million warrants," which opens thusly:Nearly 2 million warrants worth more than $340 million are outstanding in the Houston area, and in most cases they're not for hard-core criminals...
Suspending drivers licenses for 'economic crimes' problematic here and abroad
Posted on August 09, 2009After proposing a new amnesty program last week for Texas' so-called "Driver Responsibility" surcharge, I was interested to see via the blog Pardon Power that the President of South Korea plans to pardon 1.5 million people for "economic crimes," and "in particular people who earn a living by driving but have had their drivers' license suspended," according to the Korea Herald...
Are 'bait cars' manufacturing crime?
Posted on August 09, 2009I realize crime is declining, but is it really so rare that police have to manufacture crimes instead of investigating those that are reported? I missed this story when it came out a couple of weeks ago, but the Austin Statesman had an interesting piece about Austin PD's "bait car" program, where the agency leaves a vehicle filled with surveillance equipment parked out in the open with the windows down and the keys in it...
Texas Ranger withheld evidence in sex abuse case, says Texas Monthly
Posted on August 09, 2009Having just returned from Smith County on some sad business, I was pleased to discover that Texas Monthly is staying on top of an unraveling child sex-abuse case out of Mineola, most recently reporting that a Texas Ranger investigating the case allegedly withheld critical evidence...
'Nuther exoneration implicates Houston PD crime lab
Posted on August 08, 2009While I was away from the blog this week, Texas saw its 42nd DNA exoneration, this time out of Houston - another case stemming from flawed analyses from the Houston PD crime lab. Here's the New York Times' description:It was a scene replayed with alarming frequency in Texas: a 46-year-old man walked out of prison here Friday afternoon after spending 23 years behind bars for a sex crime that the evidence suggests he did not commit...
Petition for new 'driver responsibility' rules filed today
Posted on August 05, 2009I've got to leave town this morning and blogging will be light for the next few days. But I wanted to let readers know that the last thing I'll be doing before rolling northward on I-35 will be to file a petition for rulemaking with the new Executive Director of the Texas Department of Public Safety requesting amendments to DPS rules governing the so-called "Driver Responsibility" surcharge...
Media gearing up for Sharon Keller ethics trial spectacle
Posted on August 05, 2009Everybody's gearing up for Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller's ethics trial in San Antonio later this month. First Texas Monthly published an extended feature and today the Wall Street Journal Law Blog has a post "pregaming" the trial, which begins August 17...
Waiting list for in-prison treatment gone for first time ever
Posted on August 05, 2009The Austin Statesman reports on an important milestone in Texas' efforts to reduce prison overcrowding by expanding treatment and diversion programs ("After 15 years, waiting list ends for prison drug treatment programs," Aug. 5):For the first time since the Texas prison system's substance-abuse treatment programs began nearly 15 years ago, amid controversy over their cost and effectiveness, programs have no waiting list, prison officials said Tuesday...
Report details Bexar jail days, indigence costs by judge
Posted on August 04, 2009The Planning and Resource Management Team at the Bexar County Budget Division recently performed an analysis (which I obtained with an open records request) of court caseloads and costs by judge titled the "Bexar County Judicial Management Report." About 35% of misdemeanor court costs and 40% of felony district court costs stem from paying for indigent defense...
Texas Innocence Project vetting dog-scent lineup cases
Posted on August 03, 2009Time magazine picked up on the story about Fort Bend County Sheriff's Deputy Keith Pikett and his questionable "scent lineups" ("Dogs and the scent of a crime: Science or shaky evidence?," Aug. 3), noting that my former employers at the Innocence Project of Texas are vetting dozens of his old cases to prepare for an upcoming report:In mid-August, the Innocence Project of Texas plans to unveil a detailed study focusing primarily on the extensive work of one Texas dog handler whose use of scent-ID techniques is under fire in the federal courts...
Bernie Madoff, Jeff Blackburn and me
Posted on August 03, 2009Friday was my final day on the job as Policy Director at the Innocence Project of Texas, with the end coming because a grant ended prematurely when the JEHT foundation was bankrupted by the Bernie Madoff scandal on Wall Street.(I'm not the only person in in a similar situation thanks to Bernie Madoff: The Texas Criminal Justice Coalition was forced to make layoffs recently for the same reason, with victims including my friend Isela Gutierrez, their juvenile justice advocate, according to an announncement sent out by email last week...
'TYC boosts education opportunities'
Posted on August 03, 2009The title to this post is the headline from an August 1 Abilene Reporter-News story that described the Texas Youth Commission's new "educational improvement plan." Here are some of the salient details:This fall, the education improvement plan will be implemented, which officials hope will result in better services, better performance by the youth, and more career opportunities for those who are released...
An Hour for Mourning: Maggie Lee Henson, 1996-2009
Posted on August 03, 2009Maggie Lee Henson, 1996 - 2009I wanted to take an off-topic moment to convey here my sorrowful condolences to my brother John and his family: My niece Maggie Lee Henson was pronounced dead last night at 6:30 p.m., three weeks after a terrible bus accident that also claimed the life of another boy from their church, First Baptist in Shereveport, LA (where John is an assistant pastor)...
Disconnects in debate over Houston crime and policing policy
Posted on August 03, 2009Here's an odd disconnect in recent media coverage about the relationship between the number of police officers on patrol in Houston and crime rates in America's fourth largest city:When the Obama Administration denied Houston's request for 240 new officers under the COPS grant program (discussed on Grits here and here), Houston Mayor Bill White said, "We were told that Houston did not receive funding because our city budget is not distressed and our crime rates have gone down to the lowest levels in decades...
Total spent on homeless "frequent fliers" better spent oustide of jail
Posted on August 02, 2009An excellent story by Kim Horner at the Dallas News tallies up the cost of dealing with the homeless in Dallas County, which comes to $73 million annually in publiic and private dollars, half of it for less than 1,000 "frequent fliers." Here's how it begins:Dallas County taxpayers spend about $50 million a year sheltering, treating and jailing the homeless...
DPS commander coached law-enforcement witnesses, says 5th Circuit opinion
Posted on July 31, 2009In an opinion (pdf) issued Wednesday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's ruling that the DPS Commander in charge of the department's Training Academy improperly coached Harris County Sheriff's deputies before their depositions in a Sec...
Corrections second behind Medicaid in sources of state budget growth
Posted on July 30, 2009A new report (pdf) by the Vera Institute says 22 states have cut funding for corrections because of the current economic crisis. Here's the abstract:States across the United States are facing the worst fiscal crisis in years. All but two states are dealing with budget deficits, and spending is being cut across the board...
Bexar DA stepping into probation department urinalysis fiasco
Posted on July 30, 2009I've been critical of Bexar County DA Susan Reed in the past, so I've got to give the devil her due. ;) According to Greg Harman writing the San Antonio Currentthe DA?s office has stopped prosecuting probationers solely on the results of an initial dirty urinalysis...
New Harris DWI 'diversion' plan causes more problems than it solves
Posted on July 30, 2009Harris County DA Pat Lykos yesterday rolled out a highly punitive and possibly illegal "diversion" program for first-time DWI cases, leaving the Houston-area legal blogosphere abuzz. See the actual plan (pdf) and initial analysis from criminal defense attorneys Mark Bennett, Paul Kennedy and Murray Newman; here's the Houston Chronicle's coverage...
ACLU: Pregnant probationers can't be singled out
Posted on July 30, 2009Lawrence Gist has a notable piece on a friend of the court brief submitted to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals by the ACLU regarding whether pregnant probationers whose urinalysis tests positive for drug use can be singled out for harsher punishment because of their medical condition:The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Texas today filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a case involving the unfair incarceration of a pregnant woman who violated her probation...
Neuroscience and the law, now and going forward
Posted on July 29, 2009Via The Situationist, check out this excellent 10-minute interview with Stanford law prof Hank Greeley regarding an issue that's increasingly interested me as a result working as Policy Director for the Innocence Project of Texas: The intersection between law and modern neuroscience...
Are false confessions 'coerced' or persuaded?
Posted on July 29, 2009A segment titled "Could Someone Make You Confess to a Crime You Didn't Commit?" by reporter Erin Moriarty on CBS News' 48-Hours Mystery last night featured two prominent Austin cases among other examples of false confessions, noting that "One quarter of those exonerated by DNA test results actually confessed to the crime of which they were convicted...
Texas shortchanged on COPS grant funding
Posted on July 29, 2009Since Governor Perry has been disdainful of federal stimulus funds, one supposes he won't be too unhappy that Texas got stiffed on the Department of Justice's COPS hiring grants for new police officers. Though Texas makes up 7.87% of the population nationally, we received just 3...
Stephen Colbert on Tazing Great Grandma
Posted on July 28, 2009Stephen Colbert last night had an hilarious segment on the Travis County Deputy Constable who tazed a 72-year old great grandmother at a traffic stop. The whole piece is funny but the schtick about the Austin great grandmother kicks in about at about 2...
From Time Out to Hard Time: Young Children in the Adult Criminal Justice System
Posted on July 28, 2009The headline of this post is the title of a new study (pdf) by Michele Deitch and some of her students at the UT-Austin LBJ School about very young offenders (
New public defender responsible for Texas capital writs
Posted on July 28, 2009Though this blog doesn't focus much on death penalty issues, arguably the most significant achievement in the 81st Texas Legislature regarding indigent defense was the creation of a new Office of Capital Writs, described thusly in the Houston Chronicle by Lise Olsen ("State to handle capital appeals," July 27):Texas, which executes more convicts than any other state in the nation, will open its first capital defense office next year to manage appeals for death row inmates after years of reports that appointed private attorneys repeatedly botched the job...
Tracking evidence-based probation practices in Travis County
Posted on July 28, 2009Over the weekend I ran across this fine piece of journalism from the May/June issue of the Texas Association of Counties County magazine describing the details of Travis County's efforts to implement "evidence based" practices at its probation department...
California must reduce inmate numbers to achieve budget savings
Posted on July 27, 2009Proposals to cut prison costs in the face of a massive budget crisis generated blowback for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last week after he suggested releasing some inmates from the state's bloated lockups to save money and comply with federal court mandates...
Do COPS hiring grants make sense in a lousy economy?
Posted on July 27, 2009According to The Crime Report, the Obama Administration is just about ready to roll out its 21st Century version of Bill Clinton's COPS program, where the feds subsidize local law enforcement payrolls in order to hire more officers, with local taxpayers picking up the tab after three years:The Justice Department expects to announce within two weeks grants to hire about 5,000 local police officers nationwide under a $1 billion program in the new federal economic stimulus law, says Dave Buchanan, acting director of the federal COPS Office...
UA lab workers in Bexar allegedly took bribes but no one reported crimes
Posted on July 26, 2009Apparently the private lab providing urinalysis services to the Bexar probation department has more problems than just a shocking number of false positives; a couple of lab workers have been accused of taking bribes in exchange for false negatives, but nobody thought to inform police or prosecutors about the corruption and fraud...
Madden to chair crimjust committee for National Conference of State Legislatures
Posted on July 26, 2009This is a well-deserved honor, IMO, and puts state Rep. Jerry Madden, a prominent, mainstream Texas criminal justice reformer, in a nationally prominent spot where he both promote the approaches used in Texas more widely and learn more about what's being done in other states...
Should officers who use drugs, lie to investigators, remain on police force?
Posted on July 26, 2009This is not a Texas case but the difficulties faced by the Boston PD in disciplining bad cops comes up again and again in the Lone Star State, particularly in agencies whose employment policies are governed by Texas' civil service code. Here are the opening lines to a Boston Globe editorial about the local PD's weak response to an egregious corruption case ("Too easy on rogue cops," July 9):BOSTON POLICE Commissioner Edward Davis sent a weak message on police misconduct last week -- all the more so because it was timed to generate minimal publicity...
Falsifying jail records punished inconsistently by Nueces Sherff
Posted on July 26, 2009Not every case of falsifying government documents is created equal, apparently. According to an investigation by the Corpus Christi Caller Times ("Sheriff's deputies disciplined," July 26):Four guards were discovered to have falsified logs at the Nueces County Jail on Sept...
Stronger probation praised in drug court setting
Posted on July 26, 2009An item in yesterday's SA Express News featured coverage of the most recent graduating class in a San Antonio drug court ("Drug court participants celebrate new sobriety," July 25):Drug courts ? intensive probation programs that focus on nonviolent offenders with addiction problems ? have been in existence around the country for two decades and in Bexar County since 2001, said County Court-at-Law No...
Dallas jail improved but still struggling
Posted on July 25, 2009Kevin Krause at the Dallas News Crime Blog has a several informative blog posts (the first two based on internal, linked memos) that deserve attention from anyone watching the saga surrounding Dallas jail administration:Dallas County lawyers get majority of jail lawsuits thrown outDallas County jail guards may have to stay on past their shiftsDallas County jail guard arrested for having sex with inmate
Can "czar" help Harris jail overcrowding?
Posted on July 25, 2009In the wake of a harsh findings letter from the US Justice Department that could presage federal litigation, Harris County has created a jail "czar" position which will be held by former District Judge Caprice Cosper. But whatever she's able to accomplish won't stop the Harris Jail population from expanding in the near term, as evidenced by the county seeking more contract beds in Jefferson County (Beaumont)...
Texas Monthly previews upcoming Sharon Keller ethics trial
Posted on July 23, 2009In preparation for her upcoming trial beginning August 17 in San Antonio, Texas Monthly has put Michael Hall's August profile of Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller on its public web site, featuring an indepth look at the circumstances surrounding what he calls "the most infamous phone call in recent Texas history"and the backlash that arose in response...
Expanding ranks of Texas lifers part of national trend
Posted on July 23, 2009There's been lots of good discussion, some of it rounded up by Doc Berman here, of a new report from the Sentencing Project titled "No Exit: The Expanding Use of Life Sentences in America" (pdf), so I thought I'd pull out a few highlights and Texas specifics:Texas has both life sentences which are eligible for parole (most of them) and also life without parole (LWOP)...
Officers behaved "stupidly" but may have been trained that way
Posted on July 23, 2009You know when the President of the United States calls a police officer's decision "stupid" in a primetime press conference that your department has had a particularly bad day, one that's going to reverberate in the national conversation about racial politics for quite a long time...
Texas Tech will stop performing autopsies
Posted on July 23, 2009Dozens of West Texas counties face a transition and possible vacuum regarding who will provide autopsy services for the region, with the Texas Tech Health Science Center backing out of the arrangement, according to a report in the Abilene Reporter-News ("Texas Tech to stop performing autopsies, July 22")...
Forensic Science Commission to review Willingham, Moon cases
Posted on July 23, 2009If this blog were a paid gig, I'd be headed off to Houston to attend the Texas Forensic Science Commission meeting first thing tomorrow morning, but after hemming and hawing over the cost I think I have to pass. Looks like an interesting agenda, though (see the opening meetings page at the Texas Register)...
California will release older inmates to save medical costs
Posted on July 22, 2009Via Doc Berman, the LA Times gives more detail about the final deal cut by lawmakers on slashing the California corrections budget, and I was interested to see they'd included an idea which drew a lively discussion on Grits yesterday about releasing older inmates to save money on medical expenses: The prison plan would give state corrections officials authority to allow any inmate with 12 months or less on his or her sentence to serve the remaining time on home detention with electronic monitoring...
Texas' chief court administrator launches new blog
Posted on July 22, 2009Let me refer readers to a new blog called "CourTex" authored by Carl Reynolds, head of the Texas state Office of Court Administration, a former Department of Criminal Justice General Counsel, and a truly knowledgeable insider on the politics and policy of the subjects he works on...
New Rule: Nobody making arrests for overdue library books gets to complain about jail overcrowding
Posted on July 22, 2009In Wichita Falls, economic distress is boosting incarceration rates in the local jail because so many more petty defendants can't afford to post bond. According to the W-F Times-Record News ("Room scarce at jail," July 22)The number of people coming into the jail every day essentially hasn?t changed, [Chief Deputy Derek] Meador said...
Lubbock taxpayers eating costs for overbuilt jail
Posted on July 22, 2009In Lubbock County, a new jail that the commissioners court claimed would generate revenue and reduce burdens on taxpayers is gobbling up the county budget and squeezing out other priorities, the Lubbock Avalanche Journal reported ("County budget jailed," July 22):With commissioners still days away from knowing how much tax revenue they may expect, employee raises, new hires to handle growth and long-planned projects seemed set to wait until next year...
Proposed DPS rule would create new Indigence program for 'Driver Responsibility' surcharge
Posted on July 22, 2009As I mentioned last week, the missus and I have been working on a little side project to propose changes to agency rules to the Public Safety Commission to establish an indigence program for Texas' Driver Responsibility surcharge. Today I sent out this letter to friends and allies among criminal justice reformers who may have an interest in supporting this proposal...
Deputies allegedly in pocket of 'outlaw motorcycle gang'
Posted on July 21, 2009Having yesterday highlighted the case of a federal probation officer allegedly providing intelligence to smugglers from a drug cartel, I should mention another case identified by Drug War Chronicle out of the Texas South Plains featuring similar allegations:In Lubbock, Texas, two Hockley County sheriff's deputies were arrested last Friday as part of a 110-count federal indictment aimed at the Aces and Eights outlaw motorcycle gang for a methamphetamine trafficking conspiracy...
TDCJ: Paroling older offenders could save Texas $49 million per year
Posted on July 21, 2009Thanks to the addition of billions in federal stimulus funds and a now-vanished revenue infusion from high oil prices last year, Texas was able to stave off the kind of serious state budget crunch in 2009 that's crippled California and put the pinch on dozens of other states...
Texas Tribune will compete with public policy coverage, original reporting
Posted on July 21, 2009Congrats to Texas Monthly publisher Evan Smith who recently announced he'll leave his current position to launch a nonprofit media venture, The Texas Tribune, as an online, state-level news organization competing for coverage with the dailies from an entirely Internet-based platform...
Probation officer screened job applicants for drug cartel
Posted on July 20, 2009Yet another bribery case has cropped up involving a criminal justice worker on the Texas border with the arrest of federal probation officer Armando Mora last week in McAllen. Reports the American Chronicle ("Federal probation officer charged with drug trafficking and bribery," July 20):According to allegations in the criminal complaint, Mora received bribe payments from members of a drug trafficking organization to provide sensitive and confidential information from government records...
Tulia Ten Years Later
Posted on July 19, 2009The Amarillo Globe-News today has a feature commemorating the tenth anniversary of the Tulia drug stings ("Tulia drug busts: 10 years later," July 19), which informs us that, to this day: Many Tulia residents and those associated with the July 23, 1999, raid by numerous law enforcement agencies shy away from talking publicly about the incident that catapulted the Swisher County town of about 5,000 into the spotlight and brought the discussion of small-town racism to the forefront...
Texas sex offender registry includes kids as young as ten
Posted on July 19, 2009In the Dallas News this morning, Diane Jennings has a story on Texas' policy of allowing judges to place juveniles as young as 10 years old on the sex offender registry ("Some say sex offender registry ruins a juvenile's 2nd chance," July 19). Here's how the article opens:The faces of child sex offenders are startling ? chubby cheeks, big eyes, a mop of hair, or wispy strands held back with barrettes...
Fallible Fingerprints: The Dustup over Cognitive Bias
Posted on July 18, 2009I just ran across a lengthy, excellent article on the sources and frequency of error in fingerprint forensics, published in the online magazine MillerMcCune.com last month: "Bias and the Big Fingerprint Dustup" (by Sue Russell, June 18). Here's how the story opens:In 2004, cognitive neuroscientist Itiel Dror and Dave Charlton, a veteran fingerprint examiner and doctoral candidate, chatted over coffee in a Brighton hotel suite after a gala dinner at the U...
Is budget crisis at Bexar probation real or an excuse to fire Bill Fitzgerald's enemies?
Posted on July 17, 2009A story published yesterday in the San Antonio Express News announced that Bexar County's controversial probation director, Bill Fitzgerald, plans to fire nine employees ostensibly because of a reduction in their budget ("Bexar probation office eyes layoffs, furloughs," July 16):Aimee Sharp, finance director of community supervision and corrections, said the department has seen a 28 percent drop in court fees since Bexar County courts-at-law judges restructured in May the way court fees are allocated...
New DPS Director
Posted on July 17, 2009Will be Rick Perry's Homeland Security current chief Steve McCraw, reports the Statesman's Mike Ward.
Public Safety Commission plans to cancel contract with Driver Responsibility fee collections vendor
Posted on July 17, 2009At a Texas Public Safety Commission meeting today, the vendor in charge of collections for the Orwellian-named "Driver Responsibility" surcharge faced a brutal reaction from commission members, who questioned the company's "ethics" and openly called for their contract to be terminated as soon as feasible...
Jamming cell phones in prison debated at US Senate committee
Posted on July 16, 2009A US Senate Committee yesterday heard testimony from Texas state Sen. John Whitmire, TDCJ Inspector General John Moriarty, and others regarding a proposed bill by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison that would change federal law to allow states to jam cell phones in prison...
New report on prison nurseries
Posted on July 15, 2009Via Corrections.com:The Women?s Prison Association (WPA) has released the first-ever national report on prison nursery programs. The report examines the expansion of prison nursery programs across the U.S. These programs allow incarcerated women to keep their newborns with them in prison for a finite period of time...
Melendez-Diaz not as scary as the Washington Post thinks
Posted on July 15, 2009The Washington Post today published a "sky is falling" critique of the Supreme Court's decision in Melendez-Diaz that the Confrontation Clause in the Sixth Amendment requires an opportunity to cross-examine crime lab workers who prepare reports for trial...
DPS wrong to delay indigency program for 'driver responsibility' surcharge
Posted on July 15, 2009The General Counsel over at the Texas Department of Public Safety believes the agency isn't required to implement an "Indigency program" for the "Driver Responsibility" surcharge collected by the agency until September 1, 2011, according to their Public Information Officer Tela Mange...
Texas praised for prison pop reduction efforts
Posted on July 14, 2009Texas' efforts to reduce prison population growth through drug diversion programs and probation reforms were highlighted in a Washington Post feature yesterday titled, "States seek less costly substitutes for prison" (July 13). According to reporter Keith Richburg:what is striking, experts say, is how some states with reputations for being tough on crime are most rapidly embracing these policies, which might have once been dismissed as the product of liberal think tanks and soft-on-crime leniency...
Jefferson recalls liberation of Bastille prisoners
Posted on July 14, 2009Today France celebrates the 220th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, perhaps the only national holiday I'm aware of in any country celebrating a prison break. (Really, the mob was after gunpowder stored in the garrison and releasing the prisoners was an afterthought, but that's the popular portrayal...
TCJC issues legislative wrapup
Posted on July 14, 2009The Texas Criminal Justice Coalition has published its summer newsletter (pdf) including a wrap-up detailing criminal justice bills from the 81st Texas Legislature and a description of TCJC's work plans for the interim. Supplementing the newsletter, on its website TCJC has posted these issue-by-issue updates from the 81st session:Protect Youth and Communities by Improving Juvenile JusticeRebuild Confidence in the Criminal Justice System & Ensure Innocent Individuals Are Not Sent to PrisonSave Money by Providing Alternatives to Incarceration & Increase Public Safety Through Policy ReformStrengthen Criminal Justice PracticesEncourage Economic and Workforce Development by Reducing Re-Entry BarriersAppropriationsSpecial Mention: Honoring Individuals Who Pursued Smart-On-Crime Policies
Scent lineups by dogs don't pass the smell test
Posted on July 13, 2009In the wake of a report this spring by the National Academy of Sciences, more scrutiny than ever has been focused on untested and unproven forensic techniques. In that vein, yesterday, the Victoria Advocate ran a terrific story by reporter Leslie Wilber ("Does it pass the smell test," July 12) about the use of "scent lineups," a highly dubious forensic technique which, in Texas, is performed by just one man - Fort Bend Sheriff's Deputy Keith Pikett and his three bloodhounds...
Odds and Ends
Posted on July 13, 2009While I'm distracted today by a family tragedy piled on top of other scheduled duties, I wanted to point out a few recent news stories that deserve Grits readers' attention which might merit further commentary if I had more time or ability to focus:Harris County Jail commentaryThe Harris County Sheriff has a column in the Houston Chronicle today that's filled with catch phrases and feel-good commentary, but for the life of me I can't tell what position Sheriff Adrian Garcia is trying to take...
Hutchison seeks cell phone jamming authorization
Posted on July 13, 2009The US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation this week is taking up a bill by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to allow cell phone jamming in state prisons, according to a press release received via email from state Sen. John Whitmire's office: At the request of U...
Rapid cleanup best graffiti antidote
Posted on July 12, 2009I wanted to point readers to several interesting, recent news stories related to graffiti, particularly regarding the issue of rapid cleanup, which I've long believed is the single most effective strategy a city can undertake to combat graffiti:Rapid cleanup best graffiti antidoteHere's an interesting little profile of a code enforcement employee in Chandler, AZ, a Phoenix suburb, whose full-time job is cleaning up graffiti, which he is usually able to remove within 24 hours of a new report...
Unlikely Voices: Families of sex offender registrants organizing
Posted on July 12, 2009I was pleased yesterday to get to spend a little time with Mary Sue Molnar and the folks at Texas Voices (a group made up of families of registered sex offenders) at their statewide conference here in Austin. By the time I showed up in the late morning there were perhaps 60-70 folks there; I walked in just in time to hear most of their legislative update...
Geo Group secretly snagged forensic psych hospital contract in budget conference committee
Posted on July 11, 2009Amazing! Emily Ramshaw at the Dallas News reports that legislators inserted a provision into the state budget in conference committee to pay for a privately-run psych prison in Montgomery County to be run by the Geo Group, even though no state agency requested it and the idea didn't make it through the budget process in either chamber...
'Legislative report says Perry can issue posthumous pardons'
Posted on July 10, 2009The title of this post is also the headline of a Fort Worth Star-Telegram story in which we learn that the Texas Legislative Council thinks Governor Perry has authority to issue a posthumous pardon to Timothy Cole, who died in prison before DNA testing could finally exonerate him last year, without passing a constitutional amendment...
Oversight: Why so little MSM coverage after Texas abolished LWOP for juveniles?
Posted on July 10, 2009Doug Berman at the Sentencing Law & Policy blog made an observation on Wednesday which hadn't occurred to me about the surprising lack of media coverage that resulted after Texas abolished "life without parole" for juveniles convicted of capital murder...
SA jail shrink: Free-world services for mentally ill a must
Posted on July 10, 2009The San Antonio Express-News ran a lengthy and informative profile this week of Dr. Sally Taylor, head of psychiatric services at the Bexar County Jail ("Doc puts inmates mental health first," July 5). In particular the reporter (whose name I could only guess at pronouncing) highlights Taylor's role in passing new legislation to allow jails to force mentally ill patients to take their psych meds...
Cameras in patrol cars benefit no one if not filming
Posted on July 10, 2009Austin police have cameras in most patrol cars which have frequently proven to be an invaluable boon, but now the department is struggling to ensure its officers routinely use them. According to an editorial in today's Austin Statesman ("Value of getting it on the record, July 10"):This is a very good time for Austin police officials to review the department's patrol car camera policies to determine whether they need to be strengthened, clarified or revised...
Tracking new federal stimulus money for Texas law enforcement
Posted on July 09, 2009I was scanning the Texas Register today, which is something I don't do often enough (lots of blog fodder), and ran across an interesting pattern: Several regional COGs (Councils of Government) have been meeting this week, many of them yesterday, to evaluate recommendations for spending the enlarged Byrne grant fund that was part of the federal stimulus package...
Wednesday Morning Link Dump
Posted on July 08, 2009Here's some good stuff to read on Grits' usual topics while I'm focused elsehwere this a.m.:For starters, check out "Public Intoxication = Police Brutality?," a meditation on the Rainbow Lounge raid and Texas PI statutes from Robert Guest at the Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer's Blog...
Steep decline in ex-offenders' probability of re-offending
Posted on July 07, 2009After about 7.7 years after their last offense, if new Justice Department-funded research is correct, people with robbery convictions not only are much less likely to commit a new offense but thereafter are statistically less likely than the general population to commit new crimes...
Accidents mount in face of Dallas constables', sheriff's outdated pursuit policies
Posted on July 07, 2009Tanya Eiserer at the Dallas News is arguably the best crime-beat reporter in the Lone Star State, and a well-researched article last week about pursuit policies at the Dallas Sheriff and constables' offices is a good example why I say that.After "Dallas County constables [were] involved in two of three police pursuits that occurred in the span of two days, including Monday's 90-minute chase that ended in a T-bone crash in Garland," Eiserer followed up with a story comparing pursuit policies acquired under the open records act for all the other constables' offices and large law enforcement agencies ("In Dallas County, sheriff's department and constables have wide latitude for pursing suspects," July 2)...
Would Wii graffiti app promote or reduce real-world graff?
Posted on July 07, 2009I've been advocating on Grits for mainstreaming graffiti as much as possible, and this idea - a proposed-but-not-yet-marketed graffiti app for the Nintendo Wii - might take graffiti about as mainstream as it could get.The idea immediately made me think of the exhibition by the Liberty Science Center in New Jersey that drew criticism for a popular museum installation that let young kids do graffiti on an electronic, erasable tableau, a concept also being explored in a variety of environments by Graffiti Research Labs...
Praise for PEP
Posted on July 07, 2009There's a nice column in the Houston Chronicle about a visit by a group of businesspeople to Catherine Rohr's much acclaimed Prison Entrepreneurship Program ("What can we learn from prisoners?," June 7), which apparently made quite an impression:In five years, 440 prisoners have graduated from the four-month Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP)...
Lack of AC chilling for TDCJ staffing efforts
Posted on July 06, 2009The Dallas News published a story yesterday titled "Most Texas state prisons deal with summer heat without air conditioning," which reviews an issue that's all too familiar for most inmates and prison employees: Only 19 of 112 Texas state prisons are air-conditioned, leaving most of the state's 155,000 prisoners and those who guard them to face the summer heat with fans and primitive air-circulating systems...
Does a receptive climate toward immigrants reduce crime?
Posted on July 06, 2009Radley Balko at Reason thinks he has an answer for why El Paso ranks among the safest large cities in America:"If you want to find a safe city, first determine the size of the immigrant population," says Jack Levin, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Massachusetts...
Their next plan is to beat up a rabbi on Yom Kippur
Posted on July 06, 2009I hadn't mentioned the case sooner because I really have nothing insightful or thought provoking to add, but the fallout from a recent TABC/police raid in Fort Worth of a gay bar on the anniversary of New York's Stonewall riot has begun to snowball, receiving a lot of national press attention...
Tagging and community pride
Posted on July 05, 2009It's always important to take pride in your work, which was the subject of an hysterical sketch about gang graffiti that aired on MAD-TV last night. Given the frequent policy discussions on the topic usually presented on this blog, I thought readers might enjoy a lighter take...
Too many Texas bribery cases to ignore
Posted on July 04, 2009"The wicked accept secret bribes to pervert justice." Proverbs 17:23Maybe it's really the case that bribery and public corruption are becoming more commonplace, or maybe I'm just paying closer attention, but here's yet another instance of drug-war related corruption, this time involving an El Paso-based DEA Agent:A former DEA agent who pleaded guilty to bribery charges was sentenced to a year in federal prison on Thursday, acting U...
DPS must change rules to give life to Driver Responsibility indigency program
Posted on July 03, 2009One of the under-recognized achievements of the 81st Texas Legislature was the addition of two amendments by state Rep. Sylvester Turner to the Department of Public Safety's Sunset bill requiring the agency to implement an indigence program for its Orwellian-named Driver Responsibility surcharge...
3 false convictions linked to dog-based scent lineups in Florida
Posted on July 03, 2009Since I first wrote about "scent lineups" conducted by dogs, this questionable forensic tactic has garnered a lot more attention with another civil suit filed in Victoria and critical national news coverage (in USA Today), all focused on Texas' chief proponent and practitioner of scent lineups, Fort Bend Sheriff's Deputy Keith Pikett...
Clean urinalysis results allegedly exchanged for bribes in Houston
Posted on July 03, 2009I wrote last week that Texas has enough ongoing corruption cases to support a single-issue Texas Bribery Blog, and two recent examples provide a case in point. Somehow I missed the story about a "urine monitor" at the Harris County probation department who was "charged with bribery in May for allegedly taking $200 to submit a fake drug test form...
Pretrial hearing set on TYC sex abuse cases
Posted on July 02, 2009Hopefully there will be some MSM reporters heading out to Ward County to cover the trials of two former TYC employees accused of sexually abusing inmates when the case finally gets underway July 23, as reported by AP. This news confirms my sense that it was a recalcitrant judge, not some hesitance to prosecute on the part of the Attorney General, that was holding up prosecutions in these high-profile cases.
Inmate families viewed as revenue source instead of anti-recidivism partners
Posted on July 02, 2009Inmate families offer the best and most frequently cited source of assistance for offenders who want to turn their lives around, but too often the state treats them as criminals, too, instead of as partners in promoting their loved ones' rehabilitation...
Presser urges Perry to add Tim Cole pardon authorization to call
Posted on July 01, 2009Today is Timothy Cole's birthday, and the Texas Legislature opens its special session I'm headed up to the capitol soon to attend a: Press conference commemorating Tim Cole's birthday and requesting the Governor add a posthumous pardons constitutional amendment to the call for the special session ( AUSTIN )// Senator Ellis, Ruby and Cory Session, Tim Cole's mother and brother, will hold a press conference on Wednesday, July 1, 2009 at 2pm on the South Steps of the Capitol, to commemorate Tim Cole's birthday and urge Governor Perry to add a posthumous pardons constitutional amendment to the call for the special session...
SCOTUS to review Miranda, civil commitments
Posted on July 01, 2009Via SCOTUSBlog, I notice the Supreme Court this week agreed to hear two interesting looking criminal cases:Docket: 08-1175 Title: Florida v. PowellIssue: Must a suspect be expressly advised to his right to counsel during questioning and if so, does the failure to provide this express advice vitiate Miranda v...
TDCJ prisoner decline could bust privatization scheme for Grayson County Jail
Posted on June 30, 2009In Grayson County last year, officials were enamored of the idea that they could expand their local jail without taxpayers "footing the bill" if they built it out much larger than necessary, allowed a private company to operate it, and leased out empty space to the Department of Criminal Justice...
Survey: Family best ally for successful post-prison reentry
Posted on June 30, 2009Results from three new surveys by the Urban Institute provide a lot of new detail and analysis regarding barriers to successful reentry for prisoners returning from TDCJ to Houston. See their recent reports:One Year Out: The Experiences of Male Returning Prisoners in Houston, Texas Women on the Outside: Understanding the Experiences of Female Prisoners Returning to Houston, Texas When Relatives Return: Interviews with Family Members of Returning Prisoners in Houston, Texas To point out just a handful of notable survey-based findings from the longitudinal study of returning male prisoners:In terms of supporting themselves financially, men left prison with thousands of dollars of debt, and many faced challenges in seeking employment due to lack of photo identification and the existence of a criminal record...
Lion prides operate like street gangs
Posted on June 30, 2009I thought this was an interesting anthropological observation:"The most important way to think about this is that lion prides are like street gangs," says [lion researcher Craig] Packer. "They compete for turf. The bigger the gang, the more successful it is at controlling the best areas...
Will Melendez-Diaz compel confrontation for parole revocation certificates?
Posted on June 30, 2009R.J. MacReady over at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals blog analyzes possible implications for Texas from last week's Melendez-Diaz ruling by SCOTUS. Though Scalia expressly cited Texas' statute on confrontation of lab experts as an example of state law that already complied with the new ruling, MacReady thinks Melendez-Diaz could result in a change to how Texas courts view confrontation in cases involving business records and parole revocation certificates:Scalia also goes into talk about business records, and this portion of he opinion may be a little more than cosmetic...
'Scent lineups stink to critics'
Posted on June 30, 2009The title of this post is the headline over a USA Today article published today voicing criticisms of Fort Bend County Sheriff's Deputy Keith Pikett's use of bloodhounds to conduct "scent lineups," which have led to false accusations in two recent cases including one that resulted in a DNA exoneration...
Gittin' tuff on graffiti spawns more of it in Corpus Christi
Posted on June 29, 2009Threats and punishments from authority figures only go so far when dealing with rebellious teens, but in Corpus Christi, officials believe they can ramp up penalties high enough for graffiti to scare youth away from the behavior. So far, though, git-tuff policies have had exactly the opposite effect...
Texas criminal justice reform legislation passed in 2009
Posted on June 29, 2009Though much positive legislation died in the 81st Texas Legislature's closing days, I never went through the good criminal justice legislation that did finally pass and become law this year. This isn't a comprehensive list; let me know what I missed in the comments:Eliminating LWOP for juvenilesPerhaps the bill passed with the most significant national implications was SB 839 by Hinojosa eliminating life without parole as a sentencing option for juveniles, substituting a 40 year minimum for juveniles convicted in capital cases...
New judge in TYC sex abuse cases
Posted on June 29, 2009Finally, a new judge has been appointed in the TYC sex-abuse cases out of the West Texas State School, so we can likely expect a trial date to be set sooner than later. The state had been ready since last year but the district judge in Ward County had refused to set a trial date...
Fewer prisoners, more guards at TDCJ
Posted on June 28, 2009According to AP:Texas prison officials plan to cancel contracts to house up to 1,900 state convicts in county lockups because the number of inmates in state prisons has fallen.Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, told the Austin American-Statesman that officials plan to move the convicts now housed in county lockups back into state prisons by the end of August...
Texas Police Games: Maybe Grits needs a sports beat
Posted on June 28, 2009It's occurred to me before maybe Grits needs a sports beat, and if so the place to be this weekend would be Conroe where reportedly 2,000 sworn officers have gathered to compete in the Texas Police Games. They've got quite an impressive list of events lined up...
Number of mentally ill in jail a community 'barometer'
Posted on June 28, 2009The executive director of the Harris County MHMR Authority, Steven Schnee, has an effective op ed in the Houston Chronicle today declaring that the scope of mentally ill people in the Harris County jail foretells a coming crisis:The Harris County Jail is now the largest mental health facility in Texas...
Commission: Probationers, immigrant detainees may be subjected to sexual abuse
Posted on June 27, 2009The problem of prison rape has been widely discussed and decried, but a major new report (pdf) almost six years in the making by the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission says the problem can also occur in community corrections settings, mostly as a function of coercion by probation and parole officers:As in other correctional settings, courts have found that sexual abuse in community corrections violates the Eighth Amendment of the U...
Crisis or gamesmanship behind proposed CA cuts to DNA testing?
Posted on June 27, 2009California's forensic labs face an astonishing development as a result of that state's massive budget shortfall: The Los Angeles Sheriff has already halted the practice of sending rape kits out for DNA testing because the department has no money, plus, state crime labs are scheduled to have their budgets cut by half, forcing them to begin charging smaller jurisdictions for services like DNA and other forensic testing that they previously provided for free (as is the case with Texas' state crime labs)...
Clean Graffiti?
Posted on June 27, 2009It may just be an advertising gimmick to sell cars, but "clean graffiti" strikes me as a pretty clever idea:
Texas Bribery Roundup
Posted on June 27, 2009Somebody could launch a kickass blog devoted entirely to covering Texas-related bribery cases and it'd be a long time before you ran out of material. Just to mention a few recent examples:US House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers' wife, who sits on the Detroit City Council, pled guilty yesterday to taking a bribe from a Texas-based company:Prosecutors said Friday that Monica Conyers accepted two payments in late 2007 to support a city contract that would pay $47 million to Texas-based Synagro Technologies to recycle wastewater sludge and build a modern incinerator in Detroit...
'Just remember, you're paying for it'
Posted on June 26, 2009County jails all over the country have many of the same problems, and in Salt Lake City they're considering copying an approach tried in San Antonio to divert nonviolent and mentally ill offenders from the jail. Reports the Salt Lake City Tribune ("Thinking outside the cellblock," June 25): Utah's most-populous county is straining under the inmate crush...
Houston jury awards $5 million for false conviction
Posted on June 26, 2009A federal jury in Houston yesterday awarded George Rodriguez a $5 million verdict based on misconduct at the Houston crime lab that caused his false conviction. Said the Houston Chronicle:George Rodriguez, 48, gained his freedom in 2004 after DNA tests discredited the findings of the troubled Houston Police Department crime lab on his case...
Real splits on criminal justice not liberal-conservative
Posted on June 26, 2009A common theme on this blog is that divisions on criminal justice issues - despite common stereotyping - don't typically fall along partisan or traditional ideological lines. The typical culture war debates that dominate American politics simply don't cut the same way when it comes to issues of crime and punishment...
Limits set on student strip searches
Posted on June 25, 2009See the SCOTUSBlog analysis of today's US Supreme Court decision and the court's 8-1 opinion (pdf) placing new limits on when students may be strip searched by public school officials.
SCOTUS: Forensic reports require cross examination of analysts
Posted on June 25, 2009The US Supreme Court today issued a new ruling in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachussetts that affidavits documenting the result of forensic testing were subject to the Confrontation Clause in the Sixth Amendment of the US Constitution, meaning the lab analysts must be made available for cross-examination in court...
Time for DA to eat crow on Yogurt shop murder prosecutions
Posted on June 25, 2009Big news yesterday in Austin's Yogurt Shop murder case. Reports AP, "Two men awaiting retrial in the 1991 murders of four teenage girls at an Austin yogurt shop were released from jail Wednesday while prosecutors search for a match to new DNA evidence that didn't come from either of them...
More falsified results from Houston crime lab
Posted on June 24, 2009Let's continue on the Houston crime lab theme this a.m. and take a look at this recent story (June 8) from the Houston Press' Hairballs blog about apparently falsified lab results in a death penalty case:It's good news for death row inmate Charles Raby - and more bad news for Joseph Chu...
Jury to decide if Houston crime lab is liable for false testimony
Posted on June 24, 2009Mostly due to a bit of post-session blog and politics fatigue, I've not been closely monitoring the ongoing civil rights trial in Houston over an egregious innocence case out of that city's troubled crime lab.Arguably the City of Houston would have been wise to settle its lawsuit with George Rodriguez - an innocent man who spent 17 years in prison because a lab worker apparently lied at his trial to secure a conviction - after Judge Vanessa Gilmore denied the city's motion for summary judgment...
'Permission walls' help bring graffiti art into mainstream
Posted on June 23, 2009Rex Thomas, a writer out of Florida, has an excellent piece out on the relationship between street art and civic spaces, arguing that failure to bring graffiti into the mainstream postpones "treatment of the urban malaise." I was particularly taken by Thomas' discussion of "permission walls" and his analysis placing graffiti in context with more traditional, accepted art forms:In Orlando, the trend of giving street artists ?permission walls,? or walls where they have permission to paint their work, has tamed some of the sabotage...
Science undermining 'shaken baby syndrome' cases
Posted on June 22, 2009So-called "shaken baby syndrome" is another area where it increasingly appears that flawed forensic testimony helped secure numerous false convictions over the years, particularly among parents and child care workers: According to an essay by Maurice Possley at The Crime Report:A soon-to-be-published analysis of shaken baby cases and recent developments in the medical community by University of Maine School of Law professor Deborah Tuerkheimer presents persuasive evidence and raises troubling questions about whether many of these convictions were of innocent people who were found guilty on the basis of faulty science...
Judge, not AG, responsible for TYC prosecution delays
Posted on June 22, 2009Before deciding on the new comment policy announced at the end of this post, I was initially hesitant to blog about the minor kerfuffle last week when the Texas Civil Rights Project criticized the Attorney General for failing to yet take to court the West Texas sex-abuse cases that spawned the Youth Commission's recent troubles...
SCOTUS DNA ruling not a problem for Texas, but maybe for Sotomayor
Posted on June 21, 2009A number of readers have asked my views on last week's Supreme Court decision in the Osborne case out of Alaska where a slim, 5-4 majority ruled there is no constitutional right to postconviction DNA testing.My first, admittedly parochial thought: Texans needn't particularly care...
Governor Perry's 2009 Criminal Justice Vetoes
Posted on June 20, 2009Governor Perry announced this year's vetoes yesterday, although, since so much criminal justice reform legislation died in the waning days of the session thanks to partisan bickering over voter ID, not many bills that concerned this blog were even available to earn the Governor's wrath...
TDCJ population still creeping up, but tracking estimates
Posted on June 19, 2009Here's the total number of people sent to Texas prisons and state jails on felony charges in FY 2008 from the six largest Texas counties and the number of prisoners released back to each of them, according to the Department of Criminal Justice annual statistical report (pdf):Sent to prison:Harris: 15,276Dallas: 7,405Tarrant: 5,363Bexar: 4,669Travis: 3,143El Paso: 1,164Released from prison:Harris: 14,654Dallas: 7,564Tarrant: 5,185Bexar: 4,550Travis: 3,084El Paso: 1,147 Overall, Texas sent more people to prison in FY 2008 than it released according to the report: 74,283 people entered TDCJ last year, while 72,002 were released and sent home (out of 156,126 on hand as of Aug...
Department of "Public Safety" or "Collections"?
Posted on June 19, 2009According to a reader who attended, at yesterday's meeting of the Public Safety Commission there was a lengthy discussion, prompted by Commissioner Carin Barth, of the Orwellian-named "Driver Responsibility" program. Rather than criticize the draconian, regressive nature of the fee, though, which was created during the 2003 budget crisis expressly as an alternative to property tax hikes, Commissioner Barth wanted to know why there was only a 30% collection rate...
Judge Sam Kent impeached by US House; Keller's removal hearing moved to SA
Posted on June 19, 2009Judge Sam Kent's impeachment by the US House of Representatives is not surprising news, but certainly welcome.Meanwhile, I'm disappointed to learn Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller's removal hearing on August 17 will take place in San Antonio, not Austin - mostly because I'd hoped to attend and cover the spectacle...
"Keystone Kops at the Crime Lab"
Posted on June 18, 2009The title of this post is the headline from an excellent piece in Miller-McCune about problems at forensic crime labs, in which naturally the Houston crime lab figures prominently. But they also mentioned another Texas connection:In West Virginia, criminalist Fred Zain showed just how much damage a compromised police forensics laboratory can cause...
What Texas traffic enforcement can teach the national healthcare debate about "individual mandates"
Posted on June 18, 2009To veer slightly off topic for a moment, I wanted to record an observation about the national health insurance debate presently going on in Congress, and in particular the move to create an "individual mandate" for the uninsured requiring them to purchase health insurance...
Madden expects veto of bad CPS bill
Posted on June 18, 2009According to an action alert from the Free Market Foundation urging Governor Perry to veto SB 1440 expanding CPS powers, one of the bill's co-sponsors, Jerry Madden, now think last-minute amendments were a "mistake" and he expects Governor Perry to veto the legislation...
Criminologists: Death penalty does not deter
Posted on June 17, 2009Via Capital Defense Weekly, I was interested to see this new survey of top US criminologists (pdf) on the question of whether the death penalty deters murder, a debate refocused by several much-disputed studies (mostly by economists) in the last six years claiming to find a deterrent, after "scores" of studies by criminologists over previous decades had reached the opposite conclusion...
Police use of unmanned spy drones won't expand beyond Houston, yet
Posted on June 17, 2009Here's a curious little story out of Collin County about the Sheriff's Department being turned down by the Federal Aviation Administration to use federal stimulus money to purchase "unmanned drones," for heaven knows what purpose. According to the McKinney Courier-Gazette (June 16), Sheriffs Office "officials said the department withdrew their request application from the Collin County Commissioner's Court to seek a federal stimulus grant to purchase the devices because FAA regulations have listed the majority of Collin County's skies as restricted airspace...
Codifying journalists' privilege
Posted on June 16, 2009One piece of hotly debated legislation I did not track this session (but which particularly concerned many of our prosecutor friends), was HB 670 by Martinez-Fischer creating a qualified privilege for journalists not to testify in criminal cases. The bill was signed by the Governor last month and took effect immediately...
Austin PD traffic stops up 30% last year, more than 1 in 20 result in arrest
Posted on June 16, 2009How can a one-year, 30% increase in traffic stops by Austin police be justified?I could scarcely believe my eyes when I examined the City of Austin's most recent racial profiling report (pdf, published 3-2-09), and read that the number of traffic stops increased to 230,949 in 2008 from only 178,087 in 2007...
Tazing Great Grandma
Posted on June 15, 2009I'm a little late to the party on this one, but a Travis County Constable's deputy made headlines by tazing a 72-year old great grandmother last month after she dared him to - essentially for non-compliance. A flurry of media attention accompanied the release last week of the dashcam video...
Hays County will use expanded citation authority to relieve jail overcrowding
Posted on June 15, 2009After the Legislature approved new authority in 2007 to give citations instead of arresting for petty misdemeanors - a move aimed at giving counties new tools to react to rising costs of jail overcrowding - only a handful of agencies initially embraced the idea...
Interview on innocence with Dallas public defender
Posted on June 14, 2009At the Dallas News, check out Jennifer Emily's interview with "Dallas County public defender Michelle Moore [who] has represented seven of the 20 people proven innocent by DNA testing after they had been unjustly convicted and served time in prison." I worked with Moore for a time when she was a boardmember of the Innocence Project of Texas, a position she left when she was assigned to handle post-conviction DNA testing cases for the Dallas Public Defender office...
Might threat of punishment reduce drug dealing more than punishment itself?
Posted on June 14, 2009The Wall Street Journal reports that 30 US cities on Monday will announce participation in an anti-crime strategy that IMO has a ton of promise ("Cities join unorthodox crime program," June 13):The initiative, run by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, targets violent crime and open-air drug markets that are the scourge of some communities...
Feds assess market for illicit drugs, treatment trends
Posted on June 13, 2009Via this Houston Chronicle story, I learned that the National Drug Intelligence Center this week issued its annual "market analyses" on illicit drug seizures, arrests, and trends in so-called High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTAs). Here are the Texas assessments:North Texas HIDTA (DFW)South Texas HIDTA (San Antonio to the border)Houston-area HIDTA (16 counties around Houston and along the coast)West Texas HIDTA (El Paso, Midland, Odessa, and Big Bend-area counites)One item that stood out in the charts and tables about each jurisdiction: In all four areas, according to the market analyses, adult admissions to publicly funded drug treatment facilities declined between 2006 and 2008, especially for harder drugs...
Early education and crime
Posted on June 12, 2009While this blog mostly focuses on the mechanics of the criminal justice system, the truth is we must look outside the framework of police, courts and prisons to discover the real causes of crime and identify the full range of possible solutions.At this point in US history, additional spending on incarceration probably isn't worth the crime fighting bang for the buck compared to other ways that money could be spent - particularly investments in education and mental health care...
Meyers, Keasler, should be Dems' CCA electoral targets
Posted on June 12, 2009The Dallas News' Michael Landauer writes that "Lawrence Meyers, the longest-serving member of the Court of Criminal Appeals, says he's running for re-election. In doing so, he cites the court's reputation for fairness. Try not to laugh." The other two Texas CCA judges up in 2010 are Michael Keasler and Cheryl Johnson, all Republicans...
Conservative veto call for expanded CPS powers growing louder
Posted on June 11, 2009The outcry is growing against last minute amendments to SB 1440 expanding CPS authority to act without "good cause," the Fort Worth Star Telegram reported yesterday ("Groups urging Perry to veto bill that would increase CPS' power") in a story that incidentally quoted this Grits post on the topic...
Terri Hodge bribery trial begins this month
Posted on June 11, 2009Embattled state Rep. Terri Hodge, a long-time criminal-justice reform advocate, drew a primary opponent this week, Dallas lawyer Eric Johnson, who announced his candidacy anticipating her forthcoming trial for bribery, scheduled to begin later this month, reports Gromer Jeffers at the Dallas News:The June 22 public corruption trial of former Dallas City Council member Don Hill, state Rep...
Governor should add eyewitness ID, not voter ID, to special session call
Posted on June 11, 2009Governor Perry finally admitted this week that a special session would be necessary to keep agencies open whose Sunset bills didn't pass, though he didn't say when he would call it.Whenever he brings them back - whether this summer or next spring after the GOP primary in March - if the Governor decides to expand the "call" for the special session beyond keeping the Sunsetted agencies alive (they can only bring up legislation for consideration with his pre-approval), the first item on the list should be eyewitness ID, not voter ID, as some have suggested...
DOJ: Harris County Jail fails to meet minimum constitutional standards
Posted on June 10, 2009A new findings letter from the US Justice Department criticizing the Harris County Jail dramatically ups the ante regarding the overcrowded facility's continuing problems.The letter from DOJ's Civil Rights Division hit all the high points, declaring straight-up that the jail "fails to provide detainees with adequate: (1) medical care; (2) mental health care; (3) protection from serious physical harm; and (4) protection from life safety hazards...
Market blurring line between graffiti and art
Posted on June 10, 2009This story from the New York Times confronts the question, "Is graffiti Art?", and answers, "It is, this year":PARIS ? Like a slow-burning fuse, graffiti has smoldered in the contemporary art world for decades: omnipresent in the streets yet not quite hot enough to catch fire in the market...
Burka v Riddle on prison diversion funding
Posted on June 09, 2009Texas Monthly named state Rep. Debbie Riddle to its Ten Worst Legislators list, in part because of her performance as chair of the Criminal Justice Subcommittee Appropriations, and in part because Paul Burka apparently just doesn't like her. Riddle responded, and the ensuing debate casts more light on some of the Appropriations battles in the House this session over prison diversion funding...
Measuring public attitudes on criminal justice
Posted on June 08, 2009Via The Crime Report, I was surprised to see the results of this Zogby Survey done on behalf of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. Among the highlights:? A majority of US adults believe that some crimes, for which offenders are currently incarcerated, do not demand time behind bars...
Toward a crime-focused immigration policy
Posted on June 08, 2009Over at Threats Watch, Jay Fraser considers it an "interesting policy contradiction" to find that Texas will begin screening prison inmates' fingerprints to identify and deport illegal immigrants who commit serious crimes, while "The City of Oakland plans to issue photo-ID cards to illegals to enable them to ease their "access to services, improve their civic participation and encourage them to report crimes" (emphasis in original)...
Econometric support for cutting prison populations
Posted on June 08, 2009When Texas Monthly editor Jake Silverstein asked me to contribute a "Big Idea" for the magazine's May issue on the subject, I'd offered them this provocation, crafted from material in past Grits posts:Texas should dramatically slash its prison population and eliminate a majority of felony crimes...
Harris County dominating stats on certifying juvies as adults
Posted on June 07, 2009Earlier this year there was a sharp debate over whether removing 19-20 year olds from TYC caused more juveniles to be certified as adults. But it turns out the biggest factor in adult certifications may be geographic: Kids are much more likely to be certified to stand trial as adults if they live in Harris County...
Picking Sonia
Posted on June 06, 2009I've held off discussing President Barack Obama's Supreme Court pick, Sonia Sontomayor, because I know little about her and much of the public debate so far about identity politics, etc., has been uninformative. Thankfully, via SCOTUSBlog, there's a lot of information now available about her that I'll be perusing over the coming weeks:Judge Sotomayor?s completed Senate Judiciary questionnaire is available for download here...
Obama appointees offer more of the same on drug interdiction
Posted on June 06, 2009I was critical during the campaign of Barack Obama's drug policy stances, so even though I'm disappointed at the contents of his administration's new "National Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy," released yesterday at a press conference by Obama's drug czar, Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano, I'm not surprised to see them proposing more of the same...
Bad CPS bill deserves a good veto
Posted on June 05, 2009Jerri Lynn Ward alerts me to a bad amendment approved in the legislative session's waning hours heaping new authority on CPS to allow them to undertake child seizures and interrogations without first notifying parents. The Parent Guidance Center issued this press release calling for a gubernatorial veto...
Junk arson science helped secure capital murder conviction
Posted on June 04, 2009Walter Reaves, an attorney out of Waco (see his blog here), is becoming the go-to defense lawyer in Texas on arson cases involving antiquated junk science, taking the issue on at a very high level after his client Cameron Todd Willingham was executed based on bad arson science...
My Blogroll is Lame
Posted on June 04, 2009When I switched awhile back to the current template on the free Blogger software I use to run Grits, the by-hand html in which I'd previously coded all my links didn't transfer easily into the new template's format, and as a result it's become a pain in the butt to manage the blogroll; over the last year or so I've virtually quit doing it...
DNA exoneration indicts Rover in the witness box
Posted on June 03, 2009Another civil suit has been filed over questionable forensic practices involving Fort Bend Sheriff's Deputy Keith Pikett's bloodhound "scent lineups." According to FortBendNow.com, the suit:alleges that the scent line-up was ?rigged to be result-oriented, that is, to maliciously and intentionally implicate? [Calvin] Miller...
Impeachment News and Notes
Posted on June 03, 2009Federal District Judge Samuel Kent out of Galveston showed a lot of chutzpah submitting a resignation letter that doesn't become effective until a full year from now after he was convicted and sentenced to 33 months in prison for engaging in "non-consensual sexual contact with employees...
What was in the final TYC-JPC Sunset bill?
Posted on June 03, 2009The Texas Legislature didn't accomplish much in 2009, but one of its few tangible achievements was to pass the "sunset" bill for the Texas Youth Commission and the Juvenile Probation Commission. Here's the conference committee report (pdf). Let's run through the highlights real quick to see what was finally done...
CCA orders Yogurt Shop retrial based on possibility of false confessions
Posted on June 02, 2009In grudging deference to the US Supreme Court's decision in Crawford requiring that defendants have the right to confront witnesses against them in court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has thrown out one of the disputed convictions in Austin's infamous 1991 "Yogurt shop murders," a horrific case involving the murder of four teenage girls...
Embarrassing: Lege ensures more false convictions with 81st session failures
Posted on June 01, 2009After all the fawning over Timothy Cole's family and public declarations throughout the 81st Texas Legislature that the state would act to prevent false convictions, all the major innocence-related policy reforms proposed this year died in the session's waning hours with the exception of one bill requiring corroboration for jailhouse informants...
Texas prison cell-phone scandal making national news
Posted on May 31, 2009The latest issue of Wired magazine includes a feature on the problem of cell phone smuggling in Texas prisons by Vince Beiser, highlighting the much-ballyhooed case where a death-row inmate began calling state Sen. John Whitmire, launching a statewide lockdown that revealed dozens more phones at units statewide...
Odds and Ends
Posted on May 31, 2009Here are a few odds and ends that would likely become full posts in their own right if I had more bandwidth to focus on the blog today:End of an eraAs of tomorrow, Americans must present a passport to cross the Mexican and Canadian borders. For my entire lifetime, a driver's license and a declaration of citizenship have sufficed...
Last ditch effort to salvage eyewitness ID reform
Posted on May 30, 2009In the wake of yet another DNA exoneration based on faulty eyewitness testimony, the 20th out of Dallas, state Sen. Rodney Ellis and Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins held a press conference yesterday at the state capitol calling for immediate action by the Legislature, before it shuts down on Monday, to pass legislation requiring law enforcement agencies to have written procedures on presenting photo lineups...
Big Brother Watch: TX Senate would authorize license plate readers on TX highways
Posted on May 29, 2009I've been busy elsewhere and neglected to mention that the Texas Senate approved an amendment authorizing the damn license-plate readers after TXDoT denied a request by the DEA last year, discussed previously on Grits here and here. In their blog post on the story, the San Antonio Current lets us know that "Texans who are concerned about Article 33?s Orwellian implications can use a form set up by the ACLU to ask their representatives to call for it to be taken out of the bill...
Attack on in-prison employment based on phony claims of harm
Posted on May 29, 2009With all the bills dying at the Texas Legislature, it's a shame to see ones making it through that do more harm than good, which IMO is the case with HB 1914 placing greater restrictions on the small number of "prison industries" programs (PIE) through which private employers pay inmates to work in a commercial business, allowing inmates to contribute to victim compensation, child support payments and even their room and board...
Innocence bills resurrected, doomed as Senate deadline tolls
Posted on May 28, 2009Wednesday was a big day on the innocence front. It began with the announcement of the 20th DNA exoneration in Dallas (yet another case where an eyewitness picked the wrong person out of a photo lineup), saw the Governor sign the state's compensation bill for falsely convicted inmates, and ended with a couple of innocence bills that died in the House coming back to life as amendments in the Texas Senate...
Cockfighting, piracy, black helicopters and needle exchange
Posted on May 28, 2009Here are a few more odds and ends from yesterday's Senate proceedings wrapping up the narrative on bills this blog has covered at various times throughout the session:Cockfighting and highway piracySen. John Whitmire tacked on his SB 1529 regulating asset forfeiture "waivers" to an enhancement bill on cockfighting, the Statesman's Mike Ward reports...
Exoneration punctuates need for eyewitness ID reform
Posted on May 27, 2009As if to punctuate the gravity of the error, the day after the Texas House killed legislation to require eyewitness ID reforms among police, Texas will see its 40th DNA exoneree (the 20th from Dallas) walk out of court a free man today. The Dallas News ("DNA testing clears Dallas County man in 1986 rape of SMU student," May 27) reports that:Jerry Lee Evans matched the description of the man who abducted and raped a woman in Deep Ellum in 1986...
'Chubbing' kills innocence bills, and many others, in Texas House
Posted on May 27, 2009Given that yesterday was a rare weekday when Grits was silent (due to work and familial duties), it was an awfully big news day both in Texas and nationally on the criminal justice front.I'll post something later about Barack Obama's new US Supreme Court nominee once I know enough about her to have an opinion...
Carona's law enforcement integrity unit another victim of Chubfest 2009
Posted on May 27, 2009The reform bills mentioned earlier weren't the only good criminal justice bills that died in the House at midnight yesterday.It looks like John Carona's SB 388 - creating a law enforcement integrity unit at DPS to investigate police corruption - was another victim of what Harvey Kronberg called the "Tommy Williams Memorial Day Chub...
Drug war corruption deja vu
Posted on May 25, 2009I had a serious deja vu moment last night watching 60 Minutes' expose on a bizarre case involving a multijurisdictional drug task force in Missouri in which some 20 people were arrested in an undercover drug sting before it unraveled in a web of lies and scandal...
Voter ID fight puts criminal justice reform bills at risk
Posted on May 23, 2009In some ways, the comeuppance seems fitting - the Texas Senate early in the session used a parliamentary loophole to get around the so-called 2/3 rule to pass Voter ID legislation, and now House Democrats have created a de facto 2/3 rule to block it. An example of smart political chess, if I ever saw one...
Exploring Texas crime data
Posted on May 22, 2009Having posted an initial reaction to press coverage of the new Uniform Crime Reporting data (which showed so-called "index crimes" declining by 3% overall in Texas), let's adumbrate a few more details from this new dataset out of the Department of Public Safety:Despite declining crime last year and for most of the decade, according to the UCR, the number of adult Texans arrested increased by 2% in 2008, just as it increased in six of the last seven years...
Declining crime would be better news if data weren't corrupt, incomplete
Posted on May 22, 2009As has been discussed many times on this blog, data in Texas about both ongoing crime and criminal histories are incomplete and often corrupt, with wide variations from county to county and department to department regarding what gets reported and how...
Dallas News: Pass innocence bills
Posted on May 21, 2009In an editorial titled, "Legislature, pass these bills," the Dallas News this morning encouraged the Texas Legislature to approve several innocence-related bills still awaiting final votes this week, three of which could be heard as early as today on the House floor: Despite advances in lineup techniques in recent years, many Texas police agencies have failed even to adopt internal guidelines or practices...
Only a hit dog hollers: Brady violation at root of latest Dallas exoneration
Posted on May 21, 2009I've read this story though several times now, and I think former prosecutor Patricia Hogue protests just a bit too much in her shrill accusation that Dallas DA Craig Watkins and his Conviction Integrity Unit misled the Court of Criminal Appeals and let a rapist free...
Guard pay, 2 TYC units snubbed in budget
Posted on May 20, 2009The Statesman's Mike Ward has a couple of budget updates that will interest Grits readers:Prison guards get 3.5% raiseTwo TYC lockups on closure list, againBoth these are half-a-loaf solutions. Prison officials last year said they needed a 20% pay hike to solve their understaffing crisis, so one supposes this amount won't do much to fix that problem in the near term...
Harrell out as TYC Ombudsman; Senate to discuss TYC/TJPC Sunset
Posted on May 20, 2009Emily Ramshaw at the Dallas News reports that my former boss Will Harrell will leave his post as TYC Ombudsman and become "director of special projects" under Cherie Townsend at the Youth Commission. Good luck to Will, and to TYC. If history is any guide, you'll both need it...
Bill requiring corroboration for jailhouse snitches heads to Governor
Posted on May 20, 2009The Texas House this afternoon (on third reading) passed the same version of SB 1681 (by Hinojosa/Gallego) as did the Senate, so legislation requiring corroboration to secure a conviction based on jailhouse informant testimony will now head to Governor Perry's desk...
Tweaking the machinery of death
Posted on May 19, 2009There's a bill up on today's Texas House calendar which I've not tracked closely - SB 1091 creating a capital writs committee for indigent defendants (by Senators Ellis and Duncan) - that deserves Grits readers attention. See the House Research Organization report for background on the bill...
UK to police: Cameras in public spaces don't reduce crime
Posted on May 19, 2009After learning recently that Dallas crime declined less in areas covered by surveillance cameras than in the city overall, I'm unsurprised to see more longitudinal research out of the UK - widely considered the world's most surveiled society - showing that surveillance cameras in public spaces don't reduce crime...
Prosecutors justify opposition to DNA testing
Posted on May 19, 2009Several readers forwarded me a copy of The New York Times' piece yesterday about prosecutors blocking access to exculpatory DNA testing.It's a good read and covers the terrain well. One point I'd add from Texas' experience (particularly in Dallas), is that there's a potential unintended consequence for the state avoiding DNA testing: If the defendant turns out to be actually innocent, the clock may be ticking on the statute of limitations for prosecuting the real offender...
Can't take a hint: Shanda Perkins back for Round Two
Posted on May 19, 2009I'd seen this article in her hometown paper declaring Shanda Perkins, who the Texas Senate recently rejected by a 27-4 margin for a $95K per year slot on the Board of Pardons and Parole, thought there was still a chance for her nomination to get through this session, but it seemed like piling on to make too much of it...
Regard for Keller plummets among Houston lawyers
Posted on May 18, 2009According to the Houston Chronicle's Legal Trade blog, respect among Harris County lawyers for Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Sharon Keller has plummeted in recent years:The Houston Bar Association's judicial evaluation poll released [May 8] (see it here) shows some big losses in confidence in jurists who have been in the news - especially Sharon Keller on the state's highest criminal appellate court and David Medina on the state supreme court...
Bill creating repository for traffic-stop data needs to move if it's going to pass
Posted on May 18, 2009As the 81st Texas Legislature winds down, everyone around the capitol is busy surveying the terrain for the few, remaining bills among the 7,000+ filed that survived the carnage, and in doing so this morning I notice that a good bill many years in the making: SB 1120 by West, which would reduce and standardize the amount of data gathered for so-called racial profiling reports at traffic stops and create a statewide central repository to gather and compile them...
Habeas writs by the numbers
Posted on May 17, 2009Discussing post-conviction habeas corpus writs, a topic about which I've been learning much more this session, Doc Berman says he'd like to see more state-level numbercrunching:US District Judge Lynn Adelman's new article titled "The Great Writ Diminished" aspires to "stimulate a discussion about the current state of habeas corpus...
'Born Behind Bars'
Posted on May 17, 2009The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal today published a nice piece by Logan Carver ("Born Behind Bars") exploring what happens to pregnant women in the Lubbock jail and in Texas state prisons. About 250 women per year give birth in a Texas prison hospital, the A-J reports, and dozens more pregnant women (nobody knows how many) are housed in Texas county jails at any given time...
'Is there credibility in citizen journalism?'
Posted on May 16, 2009At Digital Journal last week, the question was raised, "Is there credibility in citizen journalism?" But from my perspective, that turns the question on its head. Instead I'd ask, "Would citizen journalism exist if the mainstream media had more credibility?"Don't get me wrong, I think we need the mainstream media, but as one of these so-called citizen journalists (that's just a "blogger" for those of us in the flyover states) I can tell you part of my motivation for doing this is precisely a reaction to my own criticisms of how the MSM cover stories...
Chatman prosecutor: 'Let's get this system fixed'
Posted on May 15, 2009James Fry, a former Dallas ADA and protoge' of District Attorney Henry Wade who prosecuted recent DNA-exoneree Charles Chatman's case nearly 30 years ago, reflects on his role in the false conviction and the implications of recent DNA exonerations for the justice system in an excellent Dallas Morning News op ed titled, "I put away an innocent man," which concludes: Chatman's case was not a capital crime, but the problems that led to his wrongful conviction raise the question: How can we continue carrying out executions in Texas when we know the system is so prone to error? For years, Texas has led the nation in the number of executions...
Revenge of McLovin: Bills good and bad try to sneak in under deadline
Posted on May 15, 2009Taps played in the Texas House last night as the clock struck midnight, signaling the death of several thousand bills filed in the lower chamber that didn't make it out by the deadline, at least for this session. (Now, of course, begins the biennial sport of tacking on dead bills to still-moving legislation...
Houston's white-collar crime beat
Posted on May 14, 2009Tom Kirkendall at Houston's Clear Thinkers has been a go-to source lately on white-collar crime coverage outta H-Town.Discussing a Fifth Circuit opinion in Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling's case, Big Tom notes that, "Inasmuch as there is now a clear split between Fifth Circuit decisions and other circuit appellate courts on the scope of honest services wire-fraud, the issue appears ripe for Supreme Court consideration...
Op eds support eyewitness ID bill
Posted on May 14, 2009The Austin Statesman has an editorial today about the Austin PD's adoption of best practices for photo lineups conducted by police, encouraging the Legislature to pass SB 117 (currently in House Calendars) requiring all law enforcement agencies using them to develop written policies:Both kinds of lineups, photo and live, lend themselves to abuse because relatively few police departments have written, updated policies about how they should be done...
Indigency program for 'driver responsibility' fees?
Posted on May 14, 2009The Texas House yesterday approved Sunset legislation for the Department of Public Safety, and it looks like Sylvester Turner added a couple of good amendments regarding the Orwellian-named "Driver Responsibility" surcharge, which adds a large, multi-year administrative fee on top of criminal penalties for DWI and no-insurance cases...
Perkins parole nomination scuttled!
Posted on May 13, 2009What a shocking outcome: On Sen. Whitmire's motion, with Sen. John Carona's vocal, bipartisan support, the Senate rejected Shanda Perkins' nomination to the parole board on a 27-4 vote, calling her unqualified. Whitmire said he respected Perkins but she should not be on the parole board, which literally considers matters of life and death...
Education a solution to crimes from murder to graffiti
Posted on May 13, 2009After many years of criminal penalty hikes and prison building, I've wondered if we may have reached the limits of crime reduction based on incarceration and if other investments in healthcare (particularly mental health) and education might not do more to reduce crime...
Florida can't pay for new penalties, prisons
Posted on May 13, 2009More states are rethinking their incarceration policies because of the current economic downturn. Most recently Florida, according to the Orlando Sentinel, has run up against the limits of their ability to pay for state prisons.With the state short on cash and prison beds, Republicans in the Florida Legislature are being forced to reassess the tough-on-crime mentality that has permeated their politics for years...
Heading into the home stretch
Posted on May 13, 2009A key deadline passed last night at the Texas Lege; as of today, bills filed in the House which have not been scheduled for a floor vote (and do not have a Senate companion) cannot pass, barring their resurrection as amendments to other legislation. By rule, all bills originating in the House must be passed from that chamber by midnight Thursday, at which point the home stretch of the session begins in earnest...
Parole board vacancy: Insert dildo joke here
Posted on May 13, 2009(UPDATED) The full Texas Senate today will consider the nomination of Shanda Perkins, the anti-sex toy crusader from Burleson who Governor Perry has nominated to serve on the parole board despite having no apparent experience regarding criminal justice besides the effort to ban dildos from Johnson County...
House would put stop to red-light cameras
Posted on May 12, 2009Here's some surprising but welcome news: The Texas House on Friday amended its big transportation bill to ban new contracts for red light cameras and to require cities to phase them out as current contracts expire. According to the Amarillo-Globe News ("Red light cameras dealt blow," May 9): [Bill sponsor Rep...
'Worst of the worst'? House will consider 'law of parties' in capital cases
Posted on May 12, 2009Should the death penalty be applied only to the worst of the worst, or also to those who associate with them?That's a question the Texas House will answer today when they take up and consider legislation to eliminate the death penalty for accomplices who didn't kill anyone based on the "law of parties...
Open meetings laws a First Amendment violation?
Posted on May 12, 2009Here's an unfortunate and potentially devastating new ruling by a 3-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that deserves to be overturned en banc, via the Chicago Tribune:Attorneys general from more than a dozen states asked a federal appeals court in New Orleans this week to review a ruling that they warn could cripple their open meetings laws...
Reliance on fees left drug courts underfunded
Posted on May 12, 2009According to the Killeen Daily Herald ("Bell County making progress on drug court," May 12), the Lege did not provide enough funding for drug courts mandated by the 80th Texas Legislature in 2007, putting some counties in the position of possibly losing state probation funds:A mandate came out of the last legislative session, requiring counties with a population of more than 200,000 to create a drug court...
Reader poll: Most think Keller gone by year's end
Posted on May 12, 2009Taken collectively, IMO Grits readers pretty accurately assessed in a poll last week the relative likelihood that Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller will be removed from the bench for official misconduct by the end of the year.Somewhat surprisingly, two-thirds of readers think Keller will no longer be a judge by year's end, though a plurality (34%) think nothing will happen to her...
Tanking economy prompts rethinking incarceration
Posted on May 11, 2009As states struggle with paying for expanding prison populations in a tanking economy, Texas' 2007 diversion reforms were cited as a model in a New York Times editorial today titled "Shrinking the Prison Population":New prison sentencing and re-entry policies are already taking hold in several states, thanks in part to work by the Council of State Governments? prison policy arm, the Justice Center, with the support of the Pew Charitable Trust?s Center on the States...
Exoneree compensation bill passes Texas Senate
Posted on May 11, 2009The Texas Senate today passed the Tim cole Act to improve compensation for false convictions and create a mechanism for posthumous exonerations. Here's a press release received via email from the Senate bill sponsors, Robert Duncan and Rodney Ellis:Senate Passes Tim Cole Act to Improve Compensation for Wrongfully Convicted and Their FamiliesHB 1736 ensures justice for those posthumously exonerated(Austin , Texas ) The Texas Senate today passed HB 1736, the Tim Cole Act, legislation to improve compensation for the wrongfully convicted and ensure justice for wrongfully convicted Texans who have died in prison...
Allen Stanford: DEA snitch?
Posted on May 10, 2009Did the US government tolerate fraud, money laundering and white-collar crime by Houston billionaire Allen Stanford because he was a snitch for the DEA? Reports the Press Association today:Stanford guaranteed himself against fraud investigations by working with the US DEA, turning over details of money-laundering from Latin American clients from Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela and Ecuador, the corporation claims...
Inmate used as enforcer by corrupt Montague County Sheriff
Posted on May 10, 2009The indicted Montage County Sheriff died last week, unfortunately before being held to account for his numerous crimes against inmates, female informants and the state. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram today has an extended story based on interviews with inmates, guards and other involved parties ("On Sheriff's watch, North Texas jail became den of drugs and debauchery," May 9)...
Getting creative on polygamy prosecution
Posted on May 10, 2009It being Mother's Day, let's turn our attention to the legislative aftermath of the 2008 Great Eldorado Polygamist Roundup, where more than 400 children were taken from their parents at a West Texas ranch run by a polygamous Mormon sect, the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS)...
More media focus on Tim Cole's posthumous exoneration
Posted on May 09, 2009CBS Evening News will air a story on Timothy Cole's false conviction and posthumous exoneration tonight, Saturday, May 9th, at 5:30pm CST. Check local listings on your CBS local station.See also a Mother's Day themed editorial in the San Antonio Express News on the Tim Cole case, in which the author writes, "Texans ought to be outraged enough by what happened to Cole to take a hard look at the state's criminal justice system and take tangible steps to assure that justice, not convenient convictions, is sought at every turn...
'Writ Writer' film wins award
Posted on May 09, 2009Congratulations to Susanne Mason for winning a "Silver Gavel" award from the American Bar Association for her documentary film, "Writ Writer," chronicling the history of Texas prison inmate and famed jailhouse barrister, the late Fred Cruz. The film aired on PBS' award winning Independent Lens series and earlier this year was screened at the Texas capitol.
Legislature 'picking on kids'?
Posted on May 09, 2009Christy Hoppe at the Dallas News last week noticed a trend at the Texas Legislature of the Lege injecting itself in the role of parent ("Are proposed laws at the Texas Legislature picking on kids?," May 3): Lawmakers don't want kids driving after 10 p...
Guilty plea from corrupt border Sheriff
Posted on May 08, 2009Updating a story covered here on Grits last fall, StoptheDrugWar.org brings this news from a high-profile South Texas corruption case:In San Antonio, a former Starr County sheriff pleaded guilty last Friday to one drug trafficking charge for assisting the Mexican Gulf Cartel as it smuggled drugs through his border county...
Austin PD to create eyewitness ID policy
Posted on May 08, 2009The stories of dozens of innocent men falsely convicted by mistaken victims and eyewitnesses in photo lineups are beginning to spur law enforcement to become more professional in this area.The Texas Legislature is responding - legislation to require law enforcement agencies to have written eyewitness ID policies yesterday passed out of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee after already clearing the Senate...
Harris Sheriff can't spend stimulus money on guns and gadgets
Posted on May 08, 2009The infusion of federal stimulus money for law enforcement purposes raises significant questions about oversight of those funds and how best to spend them, so I'm glad to see the Harris County Commissioners Court setting the proper tone by rejecting proposals from the new county Sheriff to buy the department machine guns and lease a helicopter...
Counties seek help on jail crowding, diversion
Posted on May 07, 2009Two stories today related to county jail overcrowding caught my eye:In my hometown of Tyler, Smith County officials have decided to forego a fourth vote on a new jail for the time being, with County Judge Joel Rogers declaring, "Now is not the best time to bring up the bond option, so we have to find other ways to stop the bleeding...
Tenaha becoming poster child for asset-forfeiture abuses
Posted on May 07, 2009Last night when laying out Sen. John Whitmire's SB 1529 regulating asset forfeiture, House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee Chairman Pete Gallego said he was sending a DVD to committee members with this story from CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 about Tenaha, a small town in East Texas that allegedly decided ripping off drivers passing through town was easier than raising taxes...
Innocence legislation wending through process
Posted on May 07, 2009It's the time of year at the Texas capitol that bills are dying left and right because they can't make it through the process in time. Bills originating in the House of Representatives, for example, are dead if they do not pass out of committee by Monday May 11 and the final House floor calendar including House bills (excepting local and consent) will be issued the next day...
Larger cities may get needle exchange option
Posted on May 07, 2009Excellent news! SB 188 - authorizing local-control needle exchange programs in Texas' largest cities and counties - passed out of the House Public Health Committee this afternoon on a 7-3 vote! Outstanding!Voting in favor of the legislation, according to the needle-exchange focused blog, Sifting the Haystack, were: Garnet Coleman, John E...
Florida passes compromised snitching reforms
Posted on May 07, 2009While legislation in Texas is moving along to protect innocent defendants by requiring corroboration to obtain a conviction based on testimony from jailhouse informants, Florida's GOP Governor Charlie Crist just signed a bill (discussed here on Grits previously) to protect the rights of informants themselves...
Jeff Blackburn Hagiography
Posted on May 06, 2009A blogger writing under the nom de plume "Harry Homeless" last month posted a notable hagiography of my boss Jeff Blackburn, the Legal Director at the Innocence Project of Texas (who incidentally will be in town this afternoon to testify on innocence legislation moving at the Lege)...
More disapprobation for Shanda Perkins nomination to parole board
Posted on May 06, 2009I'm not the only one, apparently, dissatisfied with Shanda Perkins' nomination for the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole. Harold Cook at Letters from Texas vents that: Yesterday, the nomination of Dr. Bryan Shaw came up, to continue as one of three commissioners over the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality...
Senate should reject anti-sex toy activist for parole board
Posted on May 05, 2009The nomination of Shanda Perkins to the parole board - the anti-sex-toy activist chosen by Governor Rick Perry to make decisions about releasing prisoners - comes up tomorrow afternoon in the Senate Nominations Committee. See prior Grits posts for more background:Governor appoints anti-sex toy crusader to parole boardNomination of anti-sex toy activist to parole board draws more criticismPerkins' push for harsh enforcement of petty vice laws against her neighbors in Johnson County ultimately resulted in Texas' law banning sex toys being overturned by federal courts...
Auditor: TYC not processing abuse complaints quickly enough
Posted on May 05, 2009The State Auditor's Office today issued a followup report on the Texas Youth Commission's compliance with reforms mandated in 2007. While the SAO found the agency had implemented 72% of reforms suggested in its 2007 audit, they identified several shortcomings:- TYC did not competitively bid 11 contracts totaling $19...
DPS Colonel ousted
Posted on May 05, 2009Another nasty black eye for Texas law enforcement: The interim top cop at the Texas Department of Public Safety, Col. Stanley Clark, resigned abruptly over allegations of sexual harassment.It's hard to ignore how the decision to force out long-time DPS Col...
Needle exchange, treatment and redemption
Posted on May 05, 2009Local-control needle exchange legislation, SB 188, sounds like it's in pretty good shape from what I heard of the Texas House Public Health Committee hearing this morning. Rep. Ruth McLendon laid out the bill with an emotional story of personally going into her own district in East San Antonio to distribute needles with a volunteer group (presumably illegally!) and meeting a young man whose family she knew who later went voluntarily into drug treatment...
A Big Idea for Texas Monthly: Slash Texas' prison system
Posted on May 05, 2009I neglected to mention that Texas Monthly published a short blurb I wrote in their May "Ideas" issue - the one with Joel Osteen on the cover - touting "82 various and visionary ideas for how to make Texas a better place (Better than it already is, of course, which is pretty darn good)...
Texas considers eliminating LWOP for juvies, two steps ahead of SCOTUS
Posted on May 04, 2009Amazingly, for once Texas appears to be ahead of the curve regarding reforms to capital sentencing, with the state Legislature poised to potentially eliminate life without parole entirely for juveniles, even as the US Supreme Court has decided to consider whether to ban the practice for juveniles in non-murder cases...
Declining Houston crime doesn't justify politicized rhetoric
Posted on May 04, 2009Crime in Houston is substantially down, reports the Houston Chronicle's Bradley Olson ("Houston crime is down but not the fear of it," May 4), but demagoguery by media and politicians about crime is on the rise:In the words of a statistician, the decrease in criminality appears to have an inverse relationship, at least for now, with political rhetoric on crime, which has ramped up in recent months...
Company associated with chair of white-collar crime panel subject of fraud investigation
Posted on May 04, 2009Man alive! You can't make up ironies like this one:The chair of the White Collar Crime Subcommittee of the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee is affiliated with a company that's been accused of securities fraud by state and federal white-collar crime investigators, Texas Monthly's Nate Blakeslee reports...
Collin County prosecutors could let CCA off the hook for ethical morass in Charles Hood case
Posted on May 04, 2009National CBS News last evening covered the Charles Dean Hood case, in which a Collin County prosecutor and judge conducted a secret romantic affair during Hood's capital murder trial. (The judge was later appointed by then-Governor Bush to serve on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals with 8 of the 9 current members who now must decide whether to give Hood a retrial because of her misconduct...
Needle exchange bill reaches milestone tomorrow
Posted on May 04, 2009Legislation to authorize local-control needle exchange programs will reach a milestone tomorrow when SB 188 finally receives a hearing in the House Public Health committee. The previous chair, Dianne Delisi, had singlehandedly blocked the bill in 2007 after a bipartisan supermajority of senators approved it...
Oh, THOSE assets: Judge Keller not so poor after all
Posted on May 03, 2009After pleading poverty and asking the state to pay for her defense counsel in removal proceedings by the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct, Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller has revealed $2.4 million in assets she previously had not disclosed in her state ethics filings...
Sharon Keller: Out by 2010?
Posted on May 03, 2009I just put up a reader poll in the sidebar posing the question, "Will Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller keep her job through the end of the year?" Possible answers are "Yes," "No, she'll be impeached," No, she'll be removed by the Commission on Judicial Conduct," or "No, she'll resign...
The testilying 'Bushmen'
Posted on May 03, 2009At the Dallas News, Tanya Eiserer had an excellent story this week ("Dallas police officer's testimony may taint dozens of cases," May 2) about Sgt. Randy Sundquist, a Dallas police officer officially branded a liar and banned from testifying in court after an administrative judge overturned his firing in the mid-'90s...
Sex parte: Coverup of judicial tryst tests CCA's ethical mettle
Posted on May 02, 2009March and April were both memorably bad months for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, with the Commission on Judicial Conduct initiating removal proceedings against Presiding Judge Sharon Keller followed by the House of Representatives considering a resolution to impeach her...
The Guessing Game
Posted on May 02, 2009Watching an old movie with the missus this evening, this line made me laugh out loud:"Without the facts, the science of criminal investigation is nothing more than a guessing game."- Inspector Clouseau, The Pink Panther, "A Shot in the Dark," 1964Indeed...
40% of Criminal Jurisprudence bills boost criminal penalties
Posted on May 01, 2009As has probably been the case every legislative session in living memory, bills boosting criminal penalties account for a lion's share of legislation coming out of the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee this year. According to Emily Ramshaw at the Dallas News ("Texas legislature cranking out a variety of stiffer penalties for obscure crimes," May 1), "Of the more than 100 bills the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee has endorsed this session, roughly 40 percent strengthen penalties for crimes or tighten restrictions on criminal offenders...
TDCJ closing visitation this weekend over swine flu
Posted on May 01, 2009This notice has been place at the top of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice website regarding visitation this weekend:As a preventive measure, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is canceling visitation at all facilities for the weekend of May 2 ? 3, 2009...
BS claim of the day: 'Justice doesn't have anything to do with revenue'
Posted on April 30, 2009Arlington, TX was the lead example in a USA Today story about cities and counties boosting reliance on traffic ticket and fine revenue to raise money during the economic downturn ("Courts trying to nail fine dodgers," April 29):Spurred on by tight budgets and long lists of delinquents, courts across the USA are stepping up efforts to catch fine-dodgers who, combined, owe hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid fines...
Houston crime lab only reported prosecution friendly evidence
Posted on April 30, 2009New evidence in a Houston case may or may not exonerate a man convicted of rape, the Houston Chronicle reports ("Houston man likely to be freed after 22 years," April 30), but it definitely exposed egregious misconduct by Houston crime lab personnel:A Harris County man who spent 22 years in prison for a rape that forensic tests now indicate he did not commit is expected to be freed Thursday...
Federal judge may reverse ruling on TYC firings
Posted on April 30, 2009According to Emily Ramshaw at the Dallas News:A U.S. district judge should overturn his ruling that the Texas Youth Commission improperly terminated two longtime employees after the agency's sexual abuse scandal, a federal magistrate has ruled.Two weeks ago, Judge Orlando Garcia of San Antonio said the TYC erred when it forced Patricia Logterman and Corinne Alvarez-Sanders to resign or be terminated in mid-2007...
Johnnie Lindsey, Dallas DA, tell exoneration story on daytime TV
Posted on April 30, 2009Go here to see a clip of DNA exoneree Johnnie Lindsey, Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins, Lindsey's attorney Michelle Moore and Lindsey's fiance' appearing this morning on the daytime TV show, The View. (N.b., It made me download special software to watch the clip on ABC's site...
While I'm out ...
Posted on April 29, 2009Just a few odds and ends before I head out the door for the day:Dallas DNAI wanted to watch and review the new TV show Dallas DNA, which premiered last night, but apparently we don't get the Investigation Discovery channel in Austin. It's focused on the efforts of the Dallas District Attorney's Conviction Integrity Unit and appears to feature quite a few people I've personally gotten to meet over the last year working for the Innocence Project of Texas...
Should it be a felony to steal a $35 goat?
Posted on April 29, 2009A senate bill being heard today in the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee - SB 1163 by Seliger - to me is a classic case study of how the road to hell (or at least bad public policy) is frequently paved with good intentions.Sen. Seliger's bill would make it a felony to steal a single goat, sheep, swine or any other type of livestock, no matter what its value...
Impeaching Sharon Keller: First Lege discussions on removing Court of Criminal Appeals' Presiding Judge
Posted on April 28, 2009For the first time in 34 years last night, the Legislature heard an impeachment resolution regarding a sitting judge - Presiding Judge Sharon Keller of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. I couldn't attend but am listening to the hearing online this morning...
Repaying Debts: Child support, victim restitution should be top priorities for offender payments
Posted on April 28, 2009After I wrote recently about a slew of bills increasing fees for probationers, Carl Reynolds from Texas' Office of Court Administration pointed out a recent report from his shop in conjunction with Dr. Tony Fabelo of the Council of State Governments' Justice Center titled "Repaying Debts" that addresses these and other closely related subjects...
Newspapers endorse compensation for false convictions
Posted on April 28, 2009Two major daily newspapers today urged the Texas Senate to approve legislation improving compensation for exonerated defendants.Austin Statesman: Compensation for unjust convictions in TexasDallas News: Exonerees deserve better compensationThe Statesman argued that the bill:could actually save the state money by preventing lawsuits and avoiding large settlements and legal fees...
Improving criminal justice data
Posted on April 27, 2009A couple of GOP senators want Texas criminal justice data improved:The House Public Safety Committee today will hear SB 777 by Sen. Steve Ogden that requires DPS and local agencies to gather statistical information about outcomes in Texas DWI cases - how many are dismissed, how many plead to lesser charges, etc...
Keller impeachent proceedings begin today
Posted on April 27, 2009I didn't think we'd see this during the 81st Texas Legislature, but the impeachment resolution for Presiding Judge Sharon Keller of the Court of Criminal Appeals will be heard this afternoon in the Texas House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Commitee...
Exposing judicial misconduct on right-to-counsel
Posted on April 27, 2009Following up on sentiments expressed in this thought provoking post, Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association chief Mark Bennett issued this message to Harris County criminal court judges who aren't following the law regarding bail and the right to counsel:Dear Harris County judges: The following is a non-exhaustive list of conduct, engaged in by you or your staffs, that is likely to get you grieved: Telling defendants, ?If you don?t hire a lawyer, you?re going to come back every day and stay until 11:30 until you hire a lawyer...
'Imprisoned by Stereotypes'
Posted on April 26, 2009From Doc Berman: Inside Out, the online magazine of the Prison Fellowship, has this interesting cover story with the same title as the title of this post. Here is how it gets started: When the average person conjures an image of a prisoner, what is pictured? Does the mind?s eye see a lone shadow with defiance and anger on his face and evil and ill-intent in his heart, prowling for trouble and poised to wreak violence? And who or what provides this image? Movies? The news media? Fear? When three people from Texas look into the faces of prisoners, they see an opportunity for repentance, a prospect for a second chance, a vessel of potential...
Lubbock reporter honored for Cole case coverage
Posted on April 26, 2009Kudos to Lubbock Avalanche Journal reporter Elliott Blackburn on winning a statewide journalism prize for his three-part series titled "Hope Deferred" about DNA posthumously exonerating Timothy Cole, a Texas Tech student falsely convicted of rape who died in prison in 1999...
CPPP: Foster kids face more school discipline
Posted on April 26, 2009It's not particularly shocking that abused and neglected kids in foster care are more likely to be disciplined in school (and thus more likely to wind up in the juvenile justice system), but according to a new policy paper (pdf) by the Center for Public Policy Priorities, "31 percent of all [Texas] students in foster care received at least one discipline action versus 17 percent of the general student population...
Probation fees a sleeper issue, barrier to success of reforms
Posted on April 25, 2009At a moment in history where more than 10% of adult Texans have outstanding arrest warrants, the ever growing array of increasingly unmanageable fines for low level offenses and fees for probationers is a mundane "sleeper" issue, one that may have profound implications in particular for how well the probation-centered de-incarceration reforms approved by the Texas Legislature in 2007 work in the long term...
More graffiti shennanigans in the House
Posted on April 24, 2009Having added graffiti to the friggin' organized crime statute yesterday, today the Texas House will hear yet another bill boosting penalties for graffiti, HB 1633 by Walle et. al., making graffiti of any amount a felony on the third offense and boosting restitution and community service requirements, combining the contents of several different pieces of legislation...
House to consider exoneree compensation bill today
Posted on April 24, 2009I'm headed to the capitol this morning on behalf of the Innocence Project of Texas to hear the Texas House consider legislation to boost state compensation for innocent inmates who've been exonerated by DNA evidence, and also expanding compensation claims to include the families of innocent people who die in prison, precluding civil ligiation if they take the settlement...
Consensus developing around juvie diversion programs
Posted on April 23, 2009Here's a report from yesterday's joint legislative meeting on juvenile justice reform from Grits intern Tara Haelle. Thanks, Tara, for attending the hearing and providing this writeup. As always, none of the opinions expressed here in any way represent those of UT, the LBJ School, her teacher, nor anybody but the writer and editor...
Roundup: Judges, Journalists and Jails
Posted on April 23, 2009While I'm focused elsewhere today, let me point readers to several items that might deserve individual blog posts if I had more time:No good answers for picking judgesI'm virtually certain nothing will change this session, but there's been a lot of debate this year over whether to shift from elected to appointed judges...
Graffiti as organized crime?
Posted on April 23, 2009On the House floor today, Rep. Joe Moody had a perfectly reasonable bill that added people conspiring in prison and jail escapes under the organized crime statute. But the freshman Democrat accepted a "friendly" amendment from Rep. Dwayne Bohac to define graffiti offenses, of all things, as "organized crime" if committed by two or more people in combination...
"In my experience, people did sometimes stick things in my underwear"
Posted on April 22, 2009At oral arguments in a case over whether a school in Arizona had the right to strip search a 13-year old girl to search for ibuprofen, US Supreme Court Justice Justice Stephen Breyer offered up this gem of a misstatement attempting to justify the school's actions: "In my experience, people did sometimes stick things in my underwear...
Crunch time: Bills dying right and left with little fanfare
Posted on April 22, 2009If you're supporting a House bill this session that was assigned to the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee but has not yet received a hearing, chances are it's already dead. As sine die looms ever closer, this is the first week that committee will cease hearing House bills...
Cameras, crime reduction and cost
Posted on April 22, 2009Do surveillance cameras in public spaces reduce crime and are they worth the cost?I've been highly skeptical of claims by Dallas police that new surveillance cameras downtown have radically reduced crime, mainly because their results dramatically contradict the experience in other jurisdictions that have used such cameras from a long time...
Crawford protesters earn First Amendment victory at TXCCA
Posted on April 22, 2009Here's an unexpectedly positive ruling from Texas' high criminal court that shows how divided the court has become. Via the Houston Press' Hairballs blog:The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals -- the Supreme Court for criminal matters -- has upheld a lower court's decision to toss out the convictions of two protesters arrested outside of President Bush's Crawford ranch (Does he still go to that thing anymore?)By a 5-4 vote, the TCCA found that the arrests were not warranted...
Keller impeachment resolution to be heard on Monday
Posted on April 22, 2009I've gotta admit, I didn't believe this idea would even get a hearing, but the articles of impeachment against Presiding Judge Sharon Keller of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will be heard in committee on Monday, according to a press release by Rep...
Strange debate on recording interrogations
Posted on April 22, 2009The Senate this afternoon passed Sen. Ellis' SB 116 encouraging police to record custodial interrogations on a 28-2 vote. The debate over the bill, though, was bizarre, with opponents raising strange objections that simply ignored what the bill actually does...
Bill would allow habeas appeals based on discredited science
Posted on April 21, 2009Yet another piece of important new innocence-related legislation, SB 1976, passed the Texas Senate yesterday and is headed over to the House. According to the Austin Statesman's Mike Ward:Criminals who were sent to prison ? or sentenced to death ? based on discredited scientific evidence would be given a new way to challenge their convictions under a bill passed this morning by the Texas Senate...
Erecting barriers to in-prison employment
Posted on April 21, 2009I've already lamented the bipartisan effort to scale back the too-small number of "prison industries" programs employing Texas convicts while they're incarcerated, so rather than separately analyze SB 1169 by state Sen. Robert Nichols, which is up today in the Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee, I'll just point readers to the item I wrote when the companion bill was heard in the House: "False claim of unfair competition could limit in-prison work programs...
"Partial" bail bill aims to reduce "hardship" on defendants
Posted on April 21, 2009State Sen. Jeff Wentworth has an interesting bill up today in the Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee - SB 498 - which would allow counties to accept a partial bond from pretrial defendants "if the magistrate determines that requiring the defendant to deposit a cash bond or to procure a surety bond in the full amount of bail will impose an unreasonable hardship on the defendant...
SCOTUS rolls back police search authority at traffic stops
Posted on April 21, 2009Here's some good news for liberty-loving drivers:The US Supreme Court today issued a rare pro-4th Amendment decision to restrict vehicle searches incident to arrest. In a 5-4 ruling, the high court held in Arizona v. Gant that "Police may search the passenger compartment of a vehicle incident to a recent occupant?s arrest only if it is reasonable to believe that the arrestee might access the vehicle at the time of the search or that the vehicle contains evidence of the offense of arrest...
Ethicists say Keller should be removed from bench
Posted on April 21, 2009One of the signators forwarded me a copy of this document filed yesterday with the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct by two dozen of the nation's leading judicial ethicists. You can download the pdf file here:Expert declaration regarding alleged misconduct by Judge Sharon Keller to the Texas Commission on Judicial ConductThese lawyers and scholars accuse Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller of failing to maintain impartiality and of "dishonesty" in both her financial reporting and attempts to obtain money from the state to pay for her lawyers...
Corrupt Dallas deputy facilitated multinational drug ring
Posted on April 21, 2009Investigation of a corrupt Dallas Sheriff's deputy led to discovery of an international smuggling ring connecting Mexican drug cartels with the Italian mafia, Jason Trahan at the Dallas News reports ("Mexican cartels unloading drugs to Italian mafia," April 21): "We've got some of the major cartel members established here dealing their wares in Europe," said James Capra, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Dallas office...
Bill would expand oversight of state DNA labs
Posted on April 21, 2009The Texas Forensic Science Commission would gain authority to audit DNA labs around the state if SB 1909 by Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa becomes law. The bill will be heard today in the Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee. Audits would include periodic, unannounced on-site inspections and off-site retesting of one or more samples from each laboratory...
The Judicial Immunity Community: 5th Circuit shuts down attorney suits over court appointments
Posted on April 20, 2009What happens when judges improperly reject attorneys for the appointment "wheel" to represent indigent clients? Why, nothing, of course. They're judges, you see, so they're immune. Whadidya expect?Over at Texas Lawyer, John Council brings word of a federal court opinion shutting down litigation over judges' selection of attorneys under the 2001 Fair Defense Act ("5th Circuit rejects suit against judges over court appointments," April 20):Eight years after the Legislature passed the Texas Fair Defense Act, some lawyers still are not happy with how judges carry out the law, which requires judges quickly to appoint qualified attorneys to represent indigent defendants...
Innocence Project of Texas faces Madoff-spawned budget shortfall
Posted on April 20, 2009This one hits pretty close to home:The Innocence Project of Texas faces potential economic oblivion later this year after a foundation whose funds made up the bulk of its income closed its doors due to an infamous Wall Street scandal. In a column in yesterday's Fort Worth Star Telegram, Cory Session, the youngest brother of the late Timothy Cole (who was exonerated posthumously this spring), writes:The Innocence Project of Texas fights daily for its survival...
Jurors from false confession case call for recorded interrogations
Posted on April 20, 2009Three jurors from the infamous Richard Danziger case coauthored a column in the Houston Chronicle over the weekend arguing that interrogations should be recorded to give jurors better evidence ("Jurors regret convicting innocent man," April 18):When we were called to serve as jurors in an Austin sexual assault and murder case, we could never have predicted the ending of this story...
Texas Senate endorses penalty reduction for juvenile capital murderers
Posted on April 20, 2009I'm as shocked to see the Texas Senate unanimously endorsed eliminating life without parole for juvenile capital murderers as I was to see Williamson County DA John Bradley testify in favor of the bill in committee. Congratulations to Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa for getting this landmark legislation through the Legislature's upper chamber...
A drug dealer registry? One unworkable, bad idea deserves another
Posted on April 20, 2009Apparently because the sex-offender registration program has been such a glowing success (/snark), Rep. Larry Taylor has proposed HB 4411, creating a "Drug Dealer Registration Program."I guess we're going to skip over murderers in the Legislature's registry mania and go straight for the dope dealers? This is pure silliness - basically make-work for DPS...
Poor representation in capital cases rewarded with new appointments
Posted on April 20, 2009With judges now fully empowered, according to the 5th Circuit, to exclude attorneys they don't believe are qualified, there seems to be little excuse for tolerating the kind of attorney performance described by Lise Olsen in a Houston Chronicle piece this morning, "Death row lawyers get paid while messing up," April 20):Texas lawyers have repeatedly missed deadlines for appeals on behalf of more than a dozen death row inmates in the last two years ? yet judges continue to assign life-or-death capital cases and pay hundreds of thousands in fees to those attorneys, a Chronicle records review shows...
Senate would let judges reduce misnamed 'driver responsibility' fees
Posted on April 19, 2009It's not nearly a far as I'd like to see them go, but the Texas Senate passed legislation this week to knock off some of the rough edges on Texas' so-called "driver responsibility fee," which has been a complete public policy bust. Reports the Dallas News ("Texas Senate votes to ease surcharges on DWI, other driving violations," April 18):The Senate voted Friday to revamp the troubled Texas Driver Responsibility Program, under which more than 1 million Texans have been unable or unwilling to pay stiff surcharges on top of their regular fines for driving violations...
Why not just tattoo their foreheads and be done with it?
Posted on April 19, 2009Drivers licenses are the wrong place to try to solve unrelated social problems, and here's a good example why.On Monday, the House Public Safety Committee will hear legislation - HB 1091 by Rep. Tan Parker - that would identify sex offenders as such on their drivers licenses...
Report: Shortchanging indigent defense budgets diminishes constitutional rights
Posted on April 19, 2009Dr. Tony Fabelo, one of Texas' leading criminal justice policy experts, emails to let us know about a new report, produced by a national committee on which he participated, arguing to spend new resources to shore up public defender systems and corresponding press coverage on NPR...
Bills boosting penalties make statements rather than solve problems
Posted on April 18, 2009More new, increased criminal penalties are coming down the pike this session, it appears, likely adding to the 2,324 separate felonies Texas already has on the books.Sen. Jackson's latest oyster enhancement passed out of committee. Trey Martinez-Fischer (and many others) want to boost penalties for owners of dogs who attack children...
Eyewitness ID, corroborating jailhouse informants clear Senate
Posted on April 17, 2009Two positive, if incrementalist pieces of legislation passed the Texas Senate yesterday related to preventing false convictions:SB 117 by Ellis requiring law enforcement agencies to adopt written policies related to eyewitness identification procedures, andSB 1681 by Hinojosa requiring corroboration for jailhouse informant testimony in order to secure a conviction...
'American Violet' portrays landmark TX drug task force scandal
Posted on April 17, 2009The movie American Violet opens today nationwide, including several Texas locations (see the complete list). The film fictionally depicts an infamous case that occurred here - a large drug bust in Hearne, a small town near Bryan-College Station, back in 2000 - the year after the "Tulia" raid...
House budget would spend $5 billion-plus on corrections without big prison guard raises
Posted on April 16, 2009Here's LBB's big-picture summary (pdf) of criminal justice funding in the base budget coming out of the House Appropriations Committee to be debated on the floor this week:? $4.7 billion in All Funds is provided for the incarceration and treatment of adult offenders...
Roundup: From the Lege to the courthouse to the jailhouse
Posted on April 16, 2009Here are a few items that deserve Grits readers attention even if I don't have time to devote a full blog post to each topic:Slow boatingParticularly on the House side, bills are moving more slowly in the 81st Texas Legislature than at any time in recent memory, raising the possibility that a great deal of legislation - good and bad - may just die for lack of time...
An anachronistic debate over 'racial profiling' data
Posted on April 16, 2009While I was busy on Tuesday at a House Criminal Jurisprudence subcommittee meeting and then watching the House Human Services Committee discuss the Great Eldorado Polygamist Roundup, the Senate Criminal Justice Committee was hearing a bill that I've long supported - SB 1120 by Royce West - creating a central repository of so-called "racial profiling" data generated by law enforcement officers at Texas traffic stops...
Senate committee backs juvie probation pilots
Posted on April 16, 2009The Senate Criminal Justice Committee heard SB 1374 on Tuesday that gives form to the proposed pilot programs at county juvenile probation departments aimed at diverting youth from TYC. Mike Griffiths from Dallas County said he thought his department could cut its commitments to TYC in half if the pilot program passed...
Federal Judge: TYC firings were unconstitutional
Posted on April 15, 2009Long-time readers will remember that, two years ago, dozens of Texas Youth Commission employees were fired when the state switched them all to at will employment in the much ballyhood SB 103. Now we learn those firings were illegal, potentially paving the way for more former employees to pursue litigation against the agency...
State auditor: CCA needs written rules for grant oversight
Posted on April 15, 2009The state auditor has published a new report casting light on a subject I've long thought deserved more scrutiny: Training grants made by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals as part of the court's administrative functions. On the Dallas News' Crime Blog, Diane Jennings says:The lengthy report is full of mind-numbing statistics, but one in particular jumps out: In 2008 a hefty portion of the money--about half--received by seven grant recipients went towards administrative expenditures, including salaries...
Did Ranger mislead judge into issuing Eldorado warrant?
Posted on April 15, 2009It was revealed Tuesday at the Texas House Human Services Committee hearing (see Grits coverage) that a court filing today would provide more detail about the still-murky backstory of what occurred in the five days between the initial hoax phone call to a San Angelo women's shelter and the legal and political catastrophe that became the Great Eldorado Polygamist Roundup at the YFZ Ranch...
Recording interrogations in best interest of law enforcement, justice
Posted on April 14, 2009I'm headed up to the capitol this morning to testify in favor of legislation to require recording custodial police interrogations on behalf of the Innocence Project of Texas, so I thought I'd point readers to past Grits posts on the subject:Recording interrogations makes loads of senseExpert: Yogurt Shop case a prime example of false confessionsFalse confessions a "systematic feature of American justice"Recording confessions saves much grief for policePolice interrogation a 'guilt presumptive' processWould you confess to a crime you didn't commit to save your life?If CIA can record interrogations, so can policeAbilene PD requires recording interrogationsEl Paso conference brought together top minds to prevent false confessionsWhy record interrogations?Juries need more, better information to prevent false convictionsThe main argument being trotted out against the idea by law enforcement appears to be cost, but digital audio recording equipment has become quite cheap and given the potential costs of false convictions - not to mention extra expenses for suppression hearings, etc...
Bill targeting FLDS larded with unintended consequences
Posted on April 14, 2009The Lege will revisit the Great Eldorado Polygamist Roundup this morning, the Austin Statesman reports:The House Human Services Committee will meet at 10:30 a.m. in E2.016 to look at how the state handled last year?s child-welfare operation at a West Texas ranch owned by a polygamist sect...
Deporting US citizens
Posted on April 13, 2009Dozens, perhaps hundreds of US citizens have been deported accidentally because immigration officials at county jails disbelieved their claims of citizenship and thought they were illegal immigrants, according to AP:Pedro Guzman has been an American citizen all his life...
Background materials on shoddy forensics
Posted on April 13, 2009Via the Innocence Blog:The National Academy of Sciences Committee on Identifying the Needs of the Forensic Science Community posted a wealth of forensic research and presentations on its website this week ? including the complete submissions from dozens of presenters at its five public meetings...
Improving Prosecutorial Accountability
Posted on April 13, 2009Via email:Today, The Justice Project is pleased to announce the release of Improving Prosecutorial Accountability: A Policy Review, which analyzes prosecutorial misconduct and presents comprehensive recommendations to improve the accountability of our nation's prosecutors...
Juvie funding update
Posted on April 13, 2009Here's an update from Ana Correa at the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, received via email, regarding juvenile justice funding issues in the 81st Texas Legislature. Clearly from this account, the House and Senate versions of the budget radically differ and will require resolution in a conference committee...
Johnny Sutton: He gone. More US Attorney replacement gossip
Posted on April 10, 2009A little more Texas US Attorney replacement news:US Attorney Johnny Sutton of Texas' Western District - more famous now for prosecuting two Border Patrol agents who shot a drug smuggler than for his days as a UT-Austin baseball great - has resigned. Three names have been forwarded to President Obama by the Democratic Congressional delegation for possible replacements, according to the Austin Statesman:Sutton declined to disclose his plans, but as a GOP appointee in a new Democratic administration, his resignation was no surprise...
Massive judgment upheld against private prison over inmate murder
Posted on April 10, 2009Everybody from Texas Prison Bidness to the New York Times is oohing and aahing that the 13th Texas Court of Appeals approved a $42.5 million judgment against the Geo Group (formerly Wackenhut), a private prison contractor over a murder in a South Texas Prison, for failing to protect inmates under their care...
'Round the blogs
Posted on April 10, 2009Check out excellent coverage of the topics routinely covered on Grits at these Texas-based blogs:The Back GateTexas Prison BidnessDefending PeopleDallas Criminal Defense Lawyer BlogWomen in Crime InkDallas News Crime BlogAnd for those looking forward to Tuesday's hearing of the Texas House Human Services Committee regarding the state's conduct in the Great Eldorado Polygamist Roundup, Brooke Adams at The Plural Life is your go to source...
A "scent lineup"? Rover in the witness box
Posted on April 10, 2009Erroneous eyewitness testimony and the makeup of lineups and photo arrays have been the subject of much discussion this spring as key contributors to false convictions, which makes me wonder how high the error rate might be for a "scent lineup," particularly when the witness in question is a dog?To say the least, that would make cross-examination more difficult...
Values debate behind DWI checkpoint vote crosses party lines
Posted on April 09, 2009Last week's record vote in the Texas Senate on SB 298 authorizing police to employ DWI checkpoints, a bill discussed here, demonstrated an interesting bipartisan breakdown:The motion prevailed by the following vote: Yeas 20, Nays 10.Yeas: Averitt, Carona, Davis, Duncan, Ellis (D), Fraser, Harris, Huffman, Lucio (D), Nelson, Nichols, Patrick, Seliger, Shapiro, Shapleigh (D), Van de Putte (D), Watson (D), Wentworth, West (D), Zaffirini (D)...
Bigamy, Integrity, Identity debated in senate committee
Posted on April 09, 2009While I was busy elswhere on Tuesday, the Senate Criminal Justice Committee approved a number of bills worth mentioning at their weekly meeting (see video of the hearing here):Polygamist Roundup Fallout: Enabling Bigamy ProsecutionsNo testimony at all, for or against, accompanied Sen...
What's wrong with fusion centers?
Posted on April 09, 2009Bill Baumbach at the Collin County Observer has authored a must-read post titled, "What's wrong with the North Texas Fusion Center?" - see particularly the excellent linkfest at the end.MORE: From my pal Forrest Wilder at the Texas Observer.Related Grits coverage:Fusion centers in Texas: What we have here is a failure to communicateFusion centers might be scary if they actually workedBiometrics slope got slippery awfully quick
National restorative justice conference coming to San Antone
Posted on April 08, 2009From the Dallas News Crime Blog:Those looking for an alternative to the 'lock 'em up and throw away the key' approach to criminal justice, might want to attend the second national conference on restorative justice. The University of Texas at San Antonio is hosting the conference May 13-15 and officials are expecting attendees from 10 different countries...
Timothy Cole: Exonerated
Posted on April 08, 2009In what he said was probably the "most important opinion of my judicial career," Judge Charlie Baird yesterday formally, posthumously exonerated Timothy Cole in a 16-page ruling in front of a bank of reporters and TV cameras. (See the full opinion.)Baird concluded that "the faulty work of the police and the misidentification produced by it was the primary reason why Tim Cole was wrongly convicted...
Odds and Ends
Posted on April 08, 2009Just a few odds and ends I'd blog about if I had more time.Innocence Commission gets nod from House committee.The blog Uncovering Mexico says 'adios' after Cox Newspapers shut down its Mexico City and other foreign bureaus. See Jeremy Schwartz's excellent final post...
Arson cases fueling innocence debates
Posted on April 07, 2009The Texas Observer last week took on a topic discussed frequently on this blog - arson investigations based on debunked forensics. Examining a 2004 case, Dave Mann writes:Florida-based John Lentini, one of the best-known fire investigators in the nation, agrees...
Final chapter of Tim Cole saga written today
Posted on April 07, 2009I'll be missing the Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee meeting this afternoon to head to the Travis County Courthouse for the unveiling of Judge Charlie Baird's opinion on the Timothy Cole posthumous exoneration. (See AP's coverage.)This is the final chapter of an epic false-conviction story that first began more than 20 years ago with a false eyewitness ID in Lubbock...
Sharon Keller Show postponed till August
Posted on April 07, 2009Presiding Judge Sharon Keller of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals won't have her removal hearing until August 17, it was announced yesterday, which means the circus won't be in town until after the Legislature has packed up and gone, barring unthinkable (and yet widely contemplated) special sessions over the summer...
Debating tobacco prohibition for 18 year olds
Posted on April 06, 2009Over at the Lone Star Times, David Jennings offered a thoughtful reaction to SB 1049 by Uresti, legislation with bipartisan support that would raise the legal age to purchase tobacco from 18-19, concluding:Lots of questions on this one. The first one being the most basic, is it ?right? to tell an 18 year old that he/she is not old enough to make a decision about tobacco? And if it is ?right?, why not go all the way to 21?Texas youth can drive and get married at 16 with parental consent, but can't legally have sex outside of marriage until they're 17...
Penalty hikes represent failure of imagination
Posted on April 06, 2009Here's a thought for the day while I'm busy at the capitol this morning - something I wrote in reaction to a blog commenter here about the effectiveness of increasing criminal penalties as social policy:Penalty enhancements almost always reflect a lack of imagination about other ways to influence human behavior...
Resources on Mexican drug war
Posted on April 05, 2009A few items for those following topics related to combating Mexican drug cartels:See this detailed press release listing all US Department of Justice assets being used to combat Mexican drug cartels.The Washington Post has begun a year-long series focused on the Mexican drug war that has its own home page...
Was allegedly corrupt El Paso judge part of broader conspiracy?
Posted on April 05, 2009Speaking of drug cartels, here's a high-profile judicial corruption that sounds like something you'd more readily expect on the Mexican side of the river:A newly elected felony District Judge in El Paso, Manuel Barraza, was arrested this week for allegedly dismissing or offering to dismiss drug cases in exchange for money and sexual favors...
Where are champions for open government in online era?
Posted on April 03, 2009Echoing concerns I'd raised about limiting information available on elected judges, the Dallas News' Reese Dunklin says legislation making personal information about state employees closed records limits accountability and would have prevented the News' investigative journalism on the Texas Youth Commission in 2007...
Enhancing crustacean-related crime
Posted on April 03, 2009I've frequently made fun of the fact that Texas has labeled 2,324 separate acts "felonies," including eleven felonies involving oysters. As if on cue, then, Sen. Mike Jackson this session has proposed another oyster-related enhancement, this time from a Class B to a Class A misdemeanor in the Parks and Wildlife Code for repeat offenders who take oysters from restricted areas...
Abolishing, merging TYC, juvie probation, sort of
Posted on April 03, 2009This, my friends, is why God created interns. Here's a slightly edited report on yesterday's House Corrections Committee hearing on TYC-TJPC Sunset legislation, filed by Tara Haelle, a grad student who's helping out the blog this session covering juvenile justice legislation that otherwise would fall by the wayside...
Romeo and Juliet, Abraham and Isaac: Who to criminalize?
Posted on April 02, 2009While waiting yesterday in the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee hearing for a late bill on which I was testifying, Rep. Garnet Coleman brought forward two very interesting pieces of legislation worthy of note:HB 3564: Relating to the prosecution of certain conduct constituting the offense of indecency with a child...
House Corrections to consider TYC Sunset legislation today
Posted on April 02, 2009This afternoon, the House Corrections Committee will be discussing the Texas Youth Commission and Juvenile Probation Commission's Sunset legislation, as well as at a "work session" tomorrow. Those interested can watch the hearing here after the House adjourns this afternoon.
Exoneree testimony is powerful stuff
Posted on April 02, 2009I spent all day yesterday at the Texas capitol on behalf of the Innocence Project of Texas prior to and during a lengthy House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee hearing in which testimony was heard regarding several key innocence-related bills, most notably eyewitness ID and compensation for false convictions (see coverage from AP)...
Compensating the falsely convicted
Posted on March 31, 2009Coming on the heels of news that Governor Rick Perry will meet with the family of Timothy Cole (the falsely convicted inmate who was posthumously exonerated in February in an Austin court), there are a slew of innocence-related bills up today and tomorrow in both the Texas Senate and the House...
Innocence bills, exoneree testmony, well received at Senate Criminal Justice Committee
Posted on March 31, 2009The hearing on all the innocence-related legislation today in the Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee, I thought, was a rousing success (at least from the standpoint of the Innocence Project of Texas Policy Director) with scarce little opposition to most of the reform legislation proposed...
Keller's poverty pleas draw new scrutiny to high criminal court
Posted on March 30, 2009Under normal circumstances, the media ignore the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which is Texas' highest criminal court. More attention is usually paid to the Texas Supreme Court, which hears only civil cases. But a series of high-profile squabbles with and smackdowns by the US Supreme Court over the death penalty, followed up by official misconduct charges against Presiding Judge Sharon Keller, have focused more scrutiny on the court than perhaps at any time in living memory...
More on innocence bills up in Texas Senate committee tomorrow
Posted on March 30, 2009Check out a fact sheet from the Innocence Project of Texas in support of a slew of innocence-related bills up tomorrow in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.
Another part of Obama's stimulus the Governor should oppose?
Posted on March 30, 2009We've seen tons of media and blog debate about Texas Governor Rick Perry's decision to reject nearly $600 million in unemployment money from the federal stimulus package, arguing it would obligate the state and employers to continue paying for additional benefits after the short-term stimulus money runs out...
Why bother inspecting jails if the state can't enforce the rules? Jail Standards Commission Sunset bill up this week
Posted on March 29, 2009The Dallas County Jail just failed its seventh straight annual jail inspection this week. The Montague County Jail failed its last inspection, exhibiting conditions later described as "Animal House meets Mayberry."Texas jails get inspected, they fail, but the problems never get solved...
Race, class and misconduct at a Dallas traffic stop
Posted on March 28, 2009Having been focused on what's happening in Austin under the pink dome, I'd not found time to comment on the case of NFL player Ryan Moats , who was stopped by police while rushing his family to the hospital in Dallas to be with his wife's mother who they'd been told was near death...
Hundreds of new crimes, enhancements proposed at Texas Lege
Posted on March 27, 2009On the Texas District and County Attorneys Association website, we find this unofficial statistical compilation of new crimes and penalty hikes proposed at the 81st Texas Legislature:The bill filing deadline is over and we've just about got all of the horses in the corral...
TPPF report encourages Ohio model for Texas juvie reformers
Posted on March 27, 2009The Texas Public Policy Foundation has issued a new report, "Reclaiming Texas Youth: Applying lessons from RECLAIM Ohio to Texas" (written by two academics from the Center for Criminal Justice Research at the University of Cincinnati), which a senate staffer tells me is "similar to our proposal on TYC and TJPC...
Tables turned on Judge Sharon Keller and the right to counsel
Posted on March 27, 2009Mark Bennett brilliantly dissects Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller's sworn answer to charges by the Commission on Judicial Conduct, and pulls out some gems. He writes:She spends several paragraphs reiterating the facts of Michael Richard?s case (the ?he had it coming? defense), explains that Richard was not seeking not to be executed, but rather not to be executed using the current protocol (the ?only hastening the inevitable? defense) and points the finger at Court of Criminal Appeals counsel Edward Marty and Richard?s lawyers (the ?some other dude did it? defense)...
Raft of innocence bills hit Senate committee next week
Posted on March 26, 2009Lots of innocence-related legislation posted on next Tuesday's Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee agenda. I'll be discussing several of these bills on the blog in the coming days. A number of them are under negotiation with law enforcement interests and will likely have "committee substitutes" which will substantially alter language currently posted online...
Obama's Mexico policy so far depressingly familiar
Posted on March 26, 2009Though it's early, and certainly there are many other pressing issues confronting the new president, I'm increasingly dismayed with the Obama Administration's foreign policy toward Mexico.For starters, security matters aside, Congress should never have passed and President Obama should never have signed legislation banning Mexican truckers, which not only violated a treaty but immediately inspired new Mexican tariffs on US products...
Justice Project: Faulty eyewitness IDs are leading false conviction cause
Posted on March 25, 2009I attended a press conference at the capitol this a.m. where The Justice Project announced the release of:a new report on Texas wrongful convictions exposed by DNA evidence. Convicting the Innocent: Texas Justice Derailed presents the cases of thirty-nine innocent men who served over 500 years in prison for crimes they did not commit...
Shackling, counting pregnant inmates
Posted on March 25, 2009On its website, the Texas Jail Project is promoting two bills related to jail health care for pregnant women:? HB 3653: BANS the shackling of incarcerated women in labor and delivery (with some necessary exceptions for safety).? HB 3654: requires county jails to plan their MEDICAL CARE of pregnant women and also requires them to COUNT how many pregnant women they have incarcerated...
The best sobriety checkpoint bill I ever opposed
Posted on March 25, 2009I'm not a fan, at all, of "sobriety checkpoints" on the roadways. Having grown up in the Cold War era, the whole idea has a bit too much of a "Can I see your papers, Comrade?" flavor to it for my tastes. Checkpoints where armed, uniformed agents of the state stop and question average citizens driving down the street were the kind of thing we used to point to under Communism in the old Soviet Union and say, "That doesn't happen in America...
Conviction upheld for only cop prosecuted in Dallas 'fake drug' scandal
Posted on March 25, 2009Among the cases on the hand-down list from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals today is an opinion in the case of Mark de la Paz vs. the State of Texas - litigation growing out of the infamous Dallas "fake drug" case where an informant helped crooked Dallas narcotics officers set up 24 people The opinion, written by Judge Cathy Cochran, opens:Appellant, a former Dallas Police Department Narcotics detective, was convicted of (1) tampering with physical evidence for knowingly making false statements in a police report, and (2) aggravated perjury for making the same false statements under oath...
False claim of unfair competition could limit in-prison work programs
Posted on March 24, 2009The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has very few reentry programs, but one of its more successful ones is under fire at Thursday's House Corrections Committee meeting in the form of HB 1914 by committee chairman Jim McReynolds (with a companion bill in the Senate filed by Sen...
Senate reconsidering TYC budget cuts
Posted on March 24, 2009According to the Statesman, a proposed 40% budget cut proposed in the Texas Senate for the Youth Commission "appears to be derailing." Reported Mike Ward:In recent days, the $430 million has re-emerged for inclusion in the Senate version of the budget...
Should have eloped
Posted on March 23, 2009In Galveston last year, a bride's 19-year old brother got drunk and belligerent toward a police officer at her wedding, so he responded by calling in 30 more officers who decided to clear the room using "pepper spray and electrical shock Tasers to detain and arrest 13 people," including Houston Astros pitcher Brandon Backe...
Should postpartum psychosis be a legal defense when Moms kill kids?
Posted on March 23, 2009The Dallas News reports on legislation (HB 3318) by Texas state Reps Jessica Farrar and Garnet Coleman that would make postpartum disorder a legal defense for women who kill their children, allowing jurors to hear testimony at the sentencing phase about the medical issues surrounding postpartum psychosis, potentially sentencing the offense as a state jail felony if they believe that's what spawned the tragic event ("Proposed bill would recognize postpartum psychosis as defense for Moms who kill infants," March 23): If lawmakers approve the measure, Texas would be the first state to have an infanticide law, said George Parnham, the Houston attorney who defended [Andrea] Yates...
Might restorative justice principles improve drug courts?
Posted on March 23, 2009I'm a supporter of drug court programs, but I also believe they shouldn't be immune from criticism and all such diversion programs should be constantly, rigorously tested for effectiveness. So I was interested to see a couple of recent items on the topic that collectively describe the pros and cons of this increasingly popular (even faddish) approach to adjudicating drug cases...
Blogworthy news and notes
Posted on March 23, 2009I was out of pocket Friday, Saturday and Sunday for my job, which explains the blog's relative dormancy for the last several days. I'm too busy to write separately about all the interesting stuff that's come up since then, so here are several stories that deserve Grits readers' attention even if I don't have time to fully explore them:New jails going upBurnet County speculatively built a much larger jail than they need hoping to lease the rest as contract beds...
Delay could be chance to improve DNA database bill
Posted on March 20, 2009While the Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee voted several bills out of committee this week - including Sen. Juan Hinojosa's legislation eliminating life without parole sentences for juveniles, substituting a flat 40 year minimum - I was somewhat surprised to see Sen...
Needle exchange bill sails through Senate, headed to House
Posted on March 19, 2009Having written earlier that it was possible to count 23 votes in the Texas Senate for a local-control bill authorizing needle exchange, I'm pleased but unsurprised to see Sen. Robert Deuell's SB 188 pass the Senate on a 23-7 vote. Writes Noelle at Sifting the Haystack:While laying out the bill Senator Deuell said that if this legislation becomes law it will save the state money without costing the state any money, and that countless studies have shown syringe exchange programs do not increase drug use...
US media, leaders, refocusing on Mexico in wake of cartel violence
Posted on March 19, 2009It seems like the national media is just now, finally, catching on that feuds between transnational drug cartels and the Mexican government have become a bigger, immediate security problem for America than anything happening in the Middle East. Here are several recent items that indicate the media and US leaders are thinking more seriously about the issue than at any time in recent memory:Barack Obama to visit Mexico: Drug war, immigration to be discussed, El Paso Times, March 19Drug cartels' new weaponry means war," LA Times, March 15...
Innocence News and Notes
Posted on March 18, 2009On the Innocence Project of Texas' blog the executive director published a letter I sent to the board and IPOT supporters in my role as the group's policy director describing innocence-related legislation proposed in the 81st Texas Leglature - not a comprehensive list, but hitting the high points...
Juvie prosecutor: Felony graffiti rap a "cop out by schools and police"
Posted on March 18, 2009Regular readers won't be surprised to learn that I completely agree with Murray from Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center in offering:Major kudos today for [Harris County District Attorney] Juvenile Division Chief Bill Moore for saying what plenty of Defense Attorneys and Prosecutors have been thinking and saying for a long time...
Coverage of American Violet premier
Posted on March 18, 2009Speaking of informants, the feature film American Violet - which fictionally portrays a Texas case involving false allegations by an unreliable, unstable informant and the effects on an innocent accused - premiered last night in Hearne before opening nationwide in April...
Florida bill would give informants legal counsel
Posted on March 18, 2009As Texas considers bills to corroborate and ensure reliability of jailhouse informant testimony, I was interested to see that bipartisan legislation moving in Florida takes a different tack on regulating confidential informants. Reports AP: The proposed bill would create strict standards on the use of confidential informants and give them the right to talk to an attorney before agreeing to help police...
If Andre Thomas is not insane, the insanity-defense law is
Posted on March 18, 2009The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that capital murderer Andre Thomas, who plucked out both eyes while incarcerated awaiting his death sentence - and ate one of them - "is clearly 'crazy,' but he is also 'sane' under Texas law," reports the Dallas News...
Animal House meets Mayberry
Posted on March 17, 2009AP says "the Montague County Jail was 'Animal House' meets Mayberry," though that may put too comfortable a spin on the situation when allegations include sexual assault against an informant.See prior Grits coverage:Questions regarding a completely corrupt jailWhen did rape become just a civil rights violation?More border sheriff criminality: This time on the Red RiverMontague jail flooded with contraband, closed after FBI raid
Man bites dog: Williamson DA John Bradley says remove LWOP for juvie capital offenders
Posted on March 17, 2009Who would have thought?The first bill up in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee today would eliminate life without parole in capital cases for juveniles, substituting a 40-year minimum.In a surreal moment, the first speaker was Williamson County DA John Bradley, an avowed death penalty proponent, who testified that he "really supported the bill," declaring that Sen...
Pretrial mediation bill implements restorative justice concepts
Posted on March 17, 2009Given my interest on this blog with the "restorative justice" movement, I'm pleased to see HB 2139 by McLendon on Thursday's House Corrections Committee agenda, "relating to the establishment, operation, and funding of pretrial victim-offender mediation programs...
Hot-button bills highlight first Senate Criminal Justice hearing
Posted on March 17, 2009The Senate Criminal Justice Committee has a full plate today at its first meeting of the 81st Texas Legislature. Here's a brief description of bills that are up, including several sure to generate controversy:Pardon meRoyce West has a bill (SB 233) that would allow people with deferred adjudication to receive gubernatorial pardons, though this Governor's miserly use of his pardon power makes one skeptical this would have wide application...
Few prison guards fired, prosecuted for contraband smuggling
Posted on March 16, 2009What happens to Texas prison staff caught smuggling contraband into prisons? For the most part, nothing, says a report by the Houston Chronicle ("Illicit goods keep flowing into prisons," March 15):Texas prisons are a virtual bazaar of prohibited and illicit goods smuggled in by guards and correctional employees who have rarely faced harsh punishment when caught, according to a Houston Chronicle review...
When eyewitnesses are wrong
Posted on March 16, 2009See two notable recent news items related to the relative unreliability of eyewitness identification:60 Minutes (3/8): Eyewitness: How Accurate is Visual Memory?Slate (3/14): Is our eyewitness identification system sending innocent people to jail?
Hollywood film focuses on false convictions based on Hearne informant
Posted on March 16, 2009I just received a press release via email announcing the pending release of a feature film based on an incident in tiny Hearne, TX, just down the road from Bryan-College Station, though it was actually filmed in Louisiana. According to the notice:On April 17, Samuel Goldwyn Films will release AMERICAN VIOLET, a new film based on true events that occurred in a small Texas town...
Reining in asset forfeiture abuses
Posted on March 15, 2009With so many Texas law enforcement agencies having become overly dependent on asset forfeiture income to make ends meet, last Sunday, Howard Witt the Chicago Tribune focused on an example that's almost a caricature of that trend: the East Texas town of Tenaha, where black motorists were allegedly threatened with criminal prosecution if they didn't sign over their property...
Praising Pat Lykos: Critics react well to transparency, humility from DAs
Posted on March 15, 2009New Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos has been receiving praise from unlikely quarters, recently, first for changing the office policy to allow defense counsel to receive police offense reports, then for actually apologizing over an egregious mistaken ID case prosecuted by her predecessor...
US Attorney rumors - Texas Southern District
Posted on March 14, 2009Mary Flood at the Houston Chronicle's Legal Trade blog offers up a list of rumored candidates for the US Attorney for Texas' Southern District based in Houston.Those on the rumored short list are: * ex-prosecutor Eric Reed, who is from South Texas and may have the three Congressmen from the southern section of the district on his side * ex-prosecutor and ex-state judge John Kyles, who is of counsel at Vinson & Elkins * ex-prosecutor Susan Strawn, who ran for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals as a Democrat A fourth may have been tacked on, and that would be: * Galveston County District Judge Susan Criss, who ran for Texas Supreme Court as a DemocratSee prior speculation about Texas US Attorney candidates on Grits here and here...
Hinojosa: Corroborate jailhouse informants
Posted on March 13, 2009Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa filed an excellent innocence-related bill this week in the Texas Legislature, SB 1681, which would require corroboration to obtain a conviction based on testimony from a jailhouse informant.Currently (besides accomplices), only informants involved in undercover drug stings must have their testimony corroborated - legislation Hinojosa also carried back in 2001 (then on the House side) in the wake of the Tulia episode and the Dallas "fake drug" scandals...
Kids do less art in school, more in street; Lege reacts with hammer
Posted on March 13, 2009If the only tool you have is a hammer, the saying goes, then everything looks like a nail. On graffiti, apparently, the only tool the Legislature understands is the hammer, with three bills up in a House Criminal Jurisprudence subcommittee on property crimes Monday all boosting penalties for graffiti (and all backed by Democrats, incidentally)...
TDCJ officer lobby day pushed for pay hikes
Posted on March 13, 2009Yesterday the Texas capitol was filled with grey-uniformed Texas prison guards there for a lobby day sponsored by AFSCME advocating for the 20% raise proposed by the Department of Criminal Justice. See coverage from the Austin Statesman. I chatted with several guards making the rounds who thought the event went well and everyone said they were well-received, but there's a long way to go before we'll know if their raises will make it into the budget...
Fleshing out possible juvie reform plans
Posted on March 12, 2009The Austin Statesman has coverage ("Lawmakers eyeing Travis' plan for juveniles," March 12) of three suggested reform models proposed for Texas' juvenile justice system that were first discussed on Grits here and here. Reports the Statesman:Under the concept, only juveniles convicted of serious crimes would be sent to the agency...
Good time, reentry debated today in House corrections
Posted on March 12, 2009Light blogging from me today, but there are several bills up in the House Corrections Committee today aimed at giving the Department of Criminal Justice more tools to manage its inmate population and facilitating reentry to reduce recidivism among ex-prisoners:HB 93 (Terri Hodge) Relating to the restoration of good conduct time forfeited during a term of imprisonment...
Why police interrogations should be recorded
Posted on March 11, 2009For an excellent example of why all police interrogations should be recorded, check out this heartbreaking case of the wrongful conviction of a 12-year old accused of murdering a five year old girl and the herculean efforts required to hold police and prosecutors accountable for egregious misconduct...
Lege to examine Great Eldorado Polygamist Roundup
Posted on March 11, 2009This is going to be a complete zoo!Yesterday Rep. Patrick Rose, Chair of the Texas House Human Services Committee, created a subcommittee to analyze the largest child-seizure operation in US history at a polygamist community in West Texas by the state's Department of Family Protective Services (DFPS)...
Eyewitnesses in staged test only 8% accurate
Posted on March 10, 2009In a test performed by a Lubbock TV station, only 8% of Texas Tech students could correctly identify the perpetrator from a photo array in a staged purse snatching:The students entered the lecture hall one by one, unaware they were about to become eyewitnesses to a crime...
Time to implement written consent at traffic stop searches
Posted on March 10, 2009Can Texas drivers really refuse "consent" to seach at traffic stops when police officers have the ability to arrest them, even for the most minor traffic violation if they refuse comply? That's the question posed by Rep. Harol Dutton's HB 917, which would require written or recorded consent for searches at traffic stops without a warrant or probable cause...
'Round the blogs
Posted on March 09, 2009While I'm busy with other business today, check out these fine blogs which all have interesting recent posts on the topics Grits covers:Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer BlogDefending PeopleLife at the Harris County Criminal Justice CenterSimple JusticeDrug War RantThis is an open thread...
Innocence Commission bill up this morning
Posted on March 09, 2009I'll be testifying this morning at an 8 a.m. subcommittee meeting of the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee (live video here) to support legislation by Rep. Ruth McLendon on behalf of the Innocence Project of Texas to create an innocence commission in Texas to identify causes of false convictions and ways to prevent them...
Should expunction burden fall on defendants when charges fall through?
Posted on March 09, 2009When police and prosecutors make a mistake and pursue charges against a defendant they cannot prove, should the defendant have to pay out of their own pocket to get the records expunged or should it be the state's responsibility?That's the crux of the question raised by HB 293 by Rep...
Drug cartel violence, possibly leadership migrates to US soil
Posted on March 08, 2009Last month the Governor's homeland security chief told the Legislature that the "command and control" operations of so-called Mexican drug cartels are probably closer to Houston than the border, and a couple of recent Houston Chronicle stories seem to corroborate that claim:Mexican cartels infiltrate HoustonUS teen hitman convicted of cartel killingsReported the Chron:Among the unsolved local killings is the death of Pedro Cardenas Guillen, 36, whose last name is considered trafficking royalty...
Texas US Attorney rumors updated
Posted on March 08, 2009A Democratic attorney friend anonymously forwards me more gossip about possible Texas US Attorney candidates.I'd wondered why we'd heard no rumors about candidates in Texas' Eastern and Southern District, but apparently, in the Eastern District, at least, there's a reason: "there isn't a Congressional Delegation Committee for EDTX yet because there are no Dem Congressmen in that district...
More guards, more prisons, or fewer prisoners: Bill expanding drug treatment makes third option possible
Posted on March 08, 2009In the medium run, the Texas Legislature has two options for managing its prison population - build more prisons and increase pay so they can hire sufficient staff, or reduce the number of prisoners so the Department of Criminal Justice can safely guard the inmates it's got...
Covering for Keller: CCA Damage Control Tour 2009
Posted on March 07, 2009The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals sent one of its senior members around the state this week for an unusual PR blitz, according to the Dallas News editorial board:The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals wants to get a message out. And so senior Judge Lawrence E...
Hoax video presented in salvia testimony; Riddle on hate crimes and hair color
Posted on March 06, 2009Tracking good criminal justice legislation
Posted on March 06, 2009Via email, the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition highlights:Seven bills ... scheduled for public hearings next week that, if enacted, will have a positive impact on Texas' criminal justice system. Here is a brief summary ... House Committee on Criminal JurisprudenceCommittee: House - Criminal JurisprudenceSubcommittee: Criminal ProcedureDate: Monday, March 9, 2009Time: 8:00 AMRoom: Reagan Building (JHR) 110 (105 W...
Details emerging on juvie reforms: Agency merger may be off the table
Posted on March 06, 2009There's an email making the rounds on county commissioners listservs that includes this striking tidbit from the Texas Association of Urban Counties' Donald Lee:Today, Chairman John Whitmire called me to inform me that consolidation of TYC and TJPC will not happen this session...
House budget writers move prison guard raises to "wish list," Senate cuts 40% from TYC budget
Posted on March 05, 2009Will 2009 be the year Texas approves needle exchange? Senate committee to hear syringe access bill today
Posted on March 03, 2009Senate report: Two-thirds of special ed youth at TYC don't receive services
Posted on March 02, 2009Should USDOJ investigate Texas Court of Criminal Appeals' secret pre-vote on unfiled motion?
Posted on March 01, 2009Rumor: Some CCA judges want Keller to resign, worry about future investigations, elections
Posted on February 27, 2009Nomination of anti-sex toy activist to parole board draws more criticism
Posted on February 26, 2009Houston Chronicle columnist Lisa Falkenberg says that, with the appointment of anti-sex toy activist Shanda Perkins to the Board of Pardons and Paroles, Governor Rick Perry?s "shameless pandering to the fire-and-brimstone fringes of his party crossed a line into absurdity...
More TYC Layoffs, Reorg
Posted on February 26, 2009The Texas Youth Commission's Mart unit will lose 130 jobs, but only 13 of those are lyoffs while the rest comes from eliminating unfilled positions. According to the Waco Tribune Herald:About 130 jobs will be eliminated from the McLennan County State Juvenile Correctional Facility in Mart after the Texas Youth Commission has a third round of staff reductions to respond to a drop in the number of youths incarcerated...
Open Thread - Crimjust committees meet in Texas House
Posted on February 26, 2009I'm out for at least half the day to spend three hours in a dentist's chair.In the meantime, I'm disappointed I'll have to miss the House Corrections Committee's organizational meeting this morning at 8 a.m., (live video link should be here, but isn't presently posted), for those who are interested...
Drug interruptions upon leaving prison could create drug-resistant HIV strains
Posted on February 26, 2009HIV/AIDS is the number one killer of Texas prison inmates, and TDCJ spends about half its pharmacy budget on HIV medications, but many ex-prisoners don't keep taking the drugs once they get out, according to a new study from UTMB. Reported Reuters:Results of a new study show that major interruptions in HIV drug treatment occur after release from prison...
Waiting on the Lege to solve county jail overcrowding?
Posted on February 25, 2009McLennan County officials say they need "help from Austin" to solve their jail overcrowding problem, but don't own up to the role of their own local decisionmakers in causing and continuing the situation. An editorial from the Waco Tribune Herald ("State lawmakers need to help county jails with overcrowding," Feb...
'Prosecutors Are So Dreeeeeeamy!'
Posted on February 24, 2009Houston attorney and renowned blawgger Mark Bennett says the state bar disciplinary counsel thinks "Prosecutors are so Dreeeeeamy." But when the state bar's disciplinary apparatus expresses such views, Scott Greenfield says forebodingly, it implies "that when one side is ascribed righteousness, the other is doomed...
Private prison news and notes
Posted on February 24, 2009Several informative, recent private prison stories caught my eye and deserve Grits readers attention:Do private prisons save money?While I agree most of his suggestions for saving money on state corrections costs, I dispute the final contention in a column by Marc Levin from the Texas Public Policy Foundation that greater reliance on private prisons would save the state money...
Whitmire: Don't change TYC policy on 19-20 year olds for now
Posted on February 24, 2009Despite a recent analysis by TYC's Ombudsman saying changes from 2007 resulted in more Texas youth being certified as adults for crimes committed as juveniles, Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire says the policy is unlikely to change this session, the San Antonio Express News reported yesterday ("More juvenile offenders landing in actual prison," Feb...
Austin PD finally will implement citations for petty misdemeanors
Posted on February 24, 2009After a year and a half of delay, the Austin Chronicle reports the Austin Police Department will finally begin using new authority granted to them by the Lege to issue citations instead of arresting, at the officers' discretion, for certain low-level, nonviolent misdemeanors...
Galveston federal judge pleads guilty, retires in disgrace
Posted on February 23, 2009I've not been tracking the downfall of allegedly lecherous federal district Judge Samuel Kent of Galveston, who today pled guilty to obstruction of justice charges and announced his retirement. But Mary Flood at the Houston Chronicle brings the news that:U...
Why would a county Sheriff need a 'sales' department?
Posted on February 23, 2009Have you ever heard of a county Sheriff's department with a "sales" division? That's what's needed in Garza County, reports the Lubbock Avalanche Journal ("New jail brings law enforcement closer," Feb. 22), to fill beds in a new jail aimed at profiteering from overcrowding in other counties:"Our main thing is to get out and be a sales type department to get people to bring us inmate for us to house," [Garza County Sheriff Cliff] Laws said...
Pyote facility will downsize, TYC population will 'flat-line'
Posted on February 23, 2009A couple of recent Texas Youth Commission stories deserve Grits readers attention. First, administrators plan to downsize, but not close the West Texas State School in Pyote, AP reports:The West Texas State School in Pyote will likely downsize and focus on treatment...
Keller must pay for her own lawyer on judicial misconduct charges
Posted on February 23, 2009The Houston Chronicle's Clay Robison says the Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge, Sharon Keller, may have to dig into her own pocket to defend against charges from the Judicial Conduct Commission:I doubt that many people will shed tears, but Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller may have to pay her own legal expenses to defend herself against charges she improperly shut the door on a condemned inmate's last-gasp appeal...
House criminal justice committees starting to meet
Posted on February 23, 2009While the first meeting of the Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee hasn't been scheduled yet, in the House of Representatives, beginning tomorrow, criminal justice committees will begin their organizational meetings and likely start hearing bills next week:House Appropriations, Criminal Justice Subcommittee (Debbie Riddle, chair)February 23 , 2009 @ 8:00 A...
Innocence cases demand legislative reforms
Posted on February 23, 2009Author Joyce King, a boardmember of the Innocence Project of Texas, had an op ed in yesterday's Austin Statesman calling for legislative reforms to prevent false convictions and adequately compensate those who've been cleared by DNA evidence:Now that DNA evidence has posthumously exonerated [Timothy] Cole, he is the first wrongfully convicted man in Texas to have his good name restored to surviving family...
Helping Pat Crow
Posted on February 23, 2009This is off topic, but call it a point of personal privilege. I'm about to head out to a benefit for a dear friend, mentor and long-time Austin-based campaign manager Pat Crow, who suffered a stroke last year during heart surgery. Her friends and supporters (she managed 22 political campaigns over the years, including a slew of judicial candidates) are hosting a benefit tonight...
CCA Integrity Unit: Eyewitness ID legislation should be highest innocence priority
Posted on February 23, 2009With all the recent bad publicity surrounding the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and its presiding judge, it's nice to find cause to mention them in a positive light, merited in this case by the release of a new report by the CCA's Criminal Justice Integrity Unit dubbed its 2008 Annual Report of Activities...
Debunking myths about incarceration, and promoting some
Posted on February 22, 2009Doc Berman points us to an article in Slate by Prof. John Pfaff of Fordham University law school identifying what he says are "Five Myths About Prison Growth Dispelled." The piece makes for an interesting starting point for discussion, but also promotes some mythology of its own...
Polygraphs are junk science no matter who uses them, or why
Posted on February 21, 2009If polygraphs are so unreliable they're not admissible in court, are they really a good tool for pre-employment screenings for law enforcement? The Austin Statesman offered up an alarmist report this week ("Admitted scofflaws, poly flunkers among DPS recruits," Feb...
Prosecutor who withheld Brady material will run for judge
Posted on February 20, 2009Yesterday I noted that Third Court of Appeals ruled that Travis County prosecutors in a case against alleged murder accomplice Laura Hall acted "wilfully in failing to disclose [exculpatory] statements" to Hall's defense team, but neither the opinion nor the media coverage informed us which prosecutor was responsible for the violation...
Ogden: DPS must do more about officer misconduct
Posted on February 20, 2009There's an odd zeitgeist developing at the Texas capitol making me think the Lege may be more interested in preventing and investigating police misconduct than at any time in recent memory. I was already surprised when Governor Perry's homeland security chief this week backed Sen...
The beginning of the end for Judge Sharon Keller?
Posted on February 20, 2009Analyzing the charging document against Sharon Keller from the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, Paul Burka predicts that the Presiding Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, is "Gone Baby, Gone." After analyzing the details of charges against here, he writes:Stick a fork in her: She?s done...
Governor appoints anti-sex toy crusader to parole board
Posted on February 19, 2009Normally, the Texas Senate rubber stamps the Governor's appointments to the Board of Pardons and Paroles, but one of Rick Perry's three appointees announced last week perhaps deserves closer vetting by the Senate. According to the Governor's press release:Shanda G...
New York Times: Keller be gone
Posted on February 19, 2009Reacting to the recent suggestion that Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller should be impeached for ordering a clerk not to accept a tardy, last-minute death penalty appeal in 2007, the New York Times editorialized this morning that, "If the facts are as reported, Judge Keller should be removed from the bench...
Will state bar discipline prosecutor who withheld Brady material in Austin murder case?
Posted on February 19, 2009I'm amazed to see yet another gruesome murder case in Austin tainted by apparent prosecutorial misconduct. The Texas Cable News Network reports that "The 3rd Court of Appeals upheld Laura Hall's conviction but threw out her five-year sentence it said prosecutors withheld material evidence in the case...
DPS wants cell phone ban, expand "driver responsibility fee"
Posted on February 19, 2009The Department of Public Safety at a Senate Finance Committee meeting this morning said they not only want to ban Texas drivers from using wireless communications in their vehicles - including both cell phones and hands-free devices - the agency hopes to subject cell phone using drivers to massive civil fines in addition to the cost of a ticket...
NAS report: Many forensic disciplines prone to error
Posted on February 18, 2009The National Academy of Sciences has published its long-awaited report critiquing forensic science titled "Strengthening forensic science in the United States: A path forward." Go here for a preview and ordering information. According to the accompanying press release:Rigorous and mandatory certification programs for forensic scientists are currently lacking, the report says, as are strong standards and protocols for analyzing and reporting on evidence...
Gov's homeland security chief backs law enforcement integrity unit
Posted on February 18, 2009Drug "cartels increasingly recruit law enforcement officers on both sides of the border," said the Governor's homeland security chief Steve McCraw at a meeting this morning of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee. Official corruption, including on the US side, is a "pervasive problem at all levels," he said; "it's not just a Mexican problem...
Why might police need misconduct insurance?
Posted on February 18, 2009Austin 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, 2009A 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, 2009Check 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, 2009Rep. 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...
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, 2009Quite 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, 2009With 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, 2009Mike 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, 2009Via 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, 2009Yesterday 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, 2009A 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, 2009Several 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, 2009Well, 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, 2009With 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, 2009I'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, 2009Not 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, 2009Having 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, 2009Dallas 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, 2009Texas 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...