Criminal Law

Report: Shortchanging indigent defense budgets diminishes constitutional rights

Posted on April 19, 2009
Dr. 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, 2009
More 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, 2009
Two 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, 2009
The 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...

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House budget would spend $5 billion-plus on corrections without big prison guard raises

Posted on April 16, 2009
Here'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, 2009
Here 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, 2009
While 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
Long-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, 2009
The 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, 2009
It 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, 2009
I'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, 2009
The 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, 2009
Dozens, 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, 2009
Via 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, 2009
Via 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, 2009
Here'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, 2009
A 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, 2009
Everybody 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, 2009
Check 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, 2009
Erroneous 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, 2009
Last 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, 2009
While 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, 2009
Bill 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, 2009
From 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, 2009
In 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, 2009
Just 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
I'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, 2009
Presiding 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...

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