Criminal Law

Committees rounding out interim charge hearings

Posted on November 12, 2008
Though the legislative session hasn't officially begun, tomorrow (Thursday, Nov. 13) is a busy day for legislative committee action on criminal justice topics. At 10 a.m., the Senate Criminal Justice Committee will round out its ambitious interim agenda with a public hearing on three critical topics:Interim Charge 1: Determine how private prisons are complying with state laws and how cost, safety, living conditions and rehabilitative services at private prisons compare with state-run facilities...

Guillen bill would reduce licensure barriers for many former felons

Posted on November 12, 2008
Ana Correa from the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition points out another good re-entry related bill authored by last session's House Appropriations Vice-Chairman Ryan Guillen, HB 70, described thusly in a TDCJ fact sheet she sent me (not online):Returning offenders need gainful employment in order to reintegrate and take personal responsibility...

Pragmatism vs. Confrontation frames SCOTUS' lab report debate

Posted on November 11, 2008
From this excellent SCOTUSBlog analysis by Lyle Denniston, it sounds like Justice Kennedy and a majority on the high court in the Melendez-Diaz vs. Massachussetts case are leaning toward requiring crime lab workers to testify instead of just forwarding their written lab reports...

Innocence bills are pre-filing highlight so far

Posted on November 11, 2008
Though the session won't actually begin until January, yesterday (Nov. 10) was the first day of pre-filing bills for consideration by the 81st Texas Legislature.I should add all the usual caveats before pointing out a few interesting highlights - most legislators have yet to file any bills, and most legislation filed, good or bad, won't pass...

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Texas won't ask SCOTUS to reinstate dildo ban

Posted on November 11, 2008
We learn at Sex Crimes Blog that "The State of Texas has decided not to seek a writ of certiorari following the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision which overturned Texas's sex-toy ban. The Fifth Circuit's opinion can be viewed here. "

Texas DNA testing backlog may be helped by federal grant

Posted on November 11, 2008
Speaking of crime labs, the national Innocence Project's blog reports on a rebellion in Arizona by localities against new crime lab fees, noting in the same post that:Lab backlogs are hurting police investigations in Texas, as well. Results from state labs can take months...

Consultant recommends DPS create 'Special Ops' team for snooping

Posted on November 10, 2008
Speaking of political snooping, check out this troubling passage from the recently issued Deloitte and Touche consultant recommendations (pdf, p. 14) for reorganizing the Texas Department of Public Safety:Deloitte recommends creation of a new Special Operations Group within the new Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism Division to be explicitly intelligence driven...

Tight budget times call for scrapping Big Brother

Posted on November 10, 2008
Saying "no" to a couple of ill-conceived, Big-Brotherish initiatives in the Department of Public Safety's exceptional items budget would save the Texas taxpayers $159 million in a time when budgets are tight. Neither are an effective use of criminal justice resources compared to other ways the state could use that much money...

SCOTUS to hear debate on whether forensic science is objective or testimonial

Posted on November 10, 2008
SCOTUSBlog and Doc Berman let us know that the US Supreme Court today will hear oral arguments in Melendez-Diaz vs. Massachussetts, a case I've been watching (see prior Grits coverage) because it will determine whether forensic technicians should be subject to cross examination at trial under the Constitution's "Confrontation Clause...

Evaluating new DWI treatment programs

Posted on November 10, 2008
Here's something interesting I just noticed on the Texas Legislative Budget Board's website: A request for proposals (pdf) to evaluate new in-prison DWI treatment programs. Proposals were due Oct. 20, so they'll be picking a vendor soon if they haven't already...

Layoffs, re-org at TYC Central Admin

Posted on November 09, 2008
According to Mike Ward at the Austin Statesman:Twenty-three jobs have been eliminated at the Texas Youth Commission?s Austin headquarters and 12 other positions will be frozen to save $1.7 million, officials said late this afternoon. Seven employees are being laid off...

If Obama's busting bad Bush policies, somebody please add new FBI snitch/snooping guidelines to the list

Posted on November 09, 2008
AP reports that President-elect Barack Obama plans to use executive orders to overturn numerous Bush-administration policies implemented by executive fiat (perhaps including overturning some of the President's notorious "signing statements"). This is to be expected and in most cases I'm glad to see it...

Criminal justice implications of 2008 elections from the courthouse to the Whitehoue

Posted on November 08, 2008
Looking around the web this morning, I see the newspapers and blogs have had time to begin assessing some of the criminal justice implications of Tuesday's historic election from the local to the national level, so let me point out a few highlights.On the national front, Doc Berman has been busy since Tuesday writing about implications of the shift at the federal level, providing a few hints at Obama's transition plan priorities regarding drug policy reform, brings news of an extensive "Smart on Crime" agenda endorsed by 20 organizations, ponders appointments for US Attorney General and Solicitor General, and points us to this depressing piece from Drug War Chronicle about the success of two Oregon initiatives and the failure of California's Prop 5 that show "tough on crime can still trump smart on crime...

Bloggerly scrutiny of Texas private prisons

Posted on November 07, 2008
I've got a busy day today away from the blog, but while I'm gone, check out several excellent, recent posts from our friends at Texas Prison Bidness:GEO keeps quiet on murder indictment (includes an extensive catalog of recent GEO-related scandals by Bob Libal)Idaho cancels contract with GEO's Billy Clayton unit, also by Bob...

Is "Babysitting While White" reasonable suspicion for police questioning?

Posted on November 06, 2008
Normally this blog focuses on the news of the day instead of personal stories, but I had an odd experience this morning that intersects with many of this blog's common themes, so I hope readers will excuse this self-indulgent anecdote.In short, the Austin Police Department inconvenienced, annoyed, and angered me, in that order, culminating in an incident where I was subjected to an odd and surprisingly overt brand of racial profiling just two blocks from my own house...

More Texas Criminal Justice Election Highlights

Posted on November 05, 2008
Having already analyzed yesterday's court races and the Tyler jail vote, I wanted to update readers on a few other high-profile, contested criminal justice-related races we've been discussing on this blog:Sheriff arrested for cartel affiliations re-electedFor starters, I can't help but point out that Starr County voters re-elected Sheriff Reymundo Guerra, which would be unremarkable except that he was recently arrested for allegedly working as an informant and functionary for the infamous Mexico-based Gulf Cartel! Granted, he was running unopposed and there's not a "none of the above" option, but that's still pretty funny! Reported KVUE-TV, "Even if he technically wins re-election, the sheriff of Starr County is not expected to go back to work anytime soon...

Tyler voters pick schools over jails

Posted on November 05, 2008
Tyler voters said "Yes" to schools, but "No" (for the third time in three years) to a new jail. The vote was closer than I'd expected - about 55-45 - but bottom line: No means No. Or, as the political committee created to oppose the jail was named, "What Part of 'No' Don't You Understand?"Whatever else was going on in this election, we know it's not fears about the economy that drove voter decisions; a $125 million school bond on the same ballot overwhelmingly passed...

Court races will be spearpoint of Texas Dems' future statewide success

Posted on November 05, 2008
For the most part, the power of incumbency is an amazing inertial barrier to enacting change in the judiciary through the ballot box, as Texas' election results last night ably demonstrated.Democrats challenging for statewide judicial seats couldn't quite get over the hump: Court of Criminal Appeals candidate Susan Strawn and the seldom-seen J...

Unconfirmed UAs aren't accurate but used anyway

Posted on November 04, 2008
After all the allegations that the Bexar County probation department made supervision decisions based on faulty, unconfirmed urinalysis tests, I was interested to see a USA Today story ("False results put drug tests under the microscope," Nov. 3) reported by scribe Mimi Hall describing the same problem with a national scope, the:use of unreliable field drug-test kits as the basis to arrest innocent people on illegal drug charges...

TYC Sunset report coming soon, new notification rule on meds released

Posted on November 04, 2008
Some readers may be interested in the Texas Youth Commission's new rules regarding giving youth psychotropic medication, particularly the part of the directive that declares:If a youth is prescribed psychotropic medication, the youth will be verbally notified and the parent/guardian will be notified via the Medication Notification Letter, Word Document HLS-190, of the diagnosis, name of the drug, purpose of the drug, potential side effects or complications of the drug, and safety precautions (if applicable)...

Computerizing prosecutor case files a good use of asset forfeiture funds

Posted on November 04, 2008
Ever since the Harris County DA's office was criticized for stockpiling millions in asset forfeiture money, which was either pointlessly hoarded or used as a slush fund for pet projects by former Harris DA Chuck Rosenthal, interim DA Ken Magdison has been looking to use the money for more legitimate projects, in part to keep the Legislature next spring from dedicating some of that money toward other projects if it appears the big-county DAs aren't using the money effectively...

Ex-Im Bank chief who oversaw cartel loans now chief investment officer for bailout funds

Posted on November 04, 2008
Let's turn out attention to a national subject that's slightly off topic for Grits (and perhaps a little above my pay grade), but that I've thought deserved attention ever since I noticed a particularly odd connection regarding the much-ballyhooed Wall Street bailout and a story I've written about on Grits...

No final word yet on TDCJ lockdown results.

Posted on November 03, 2008
I've not seen a recent update on results from the TDCJ statewide prison lockdown searching for cell phones and other contraband since this report from AP nearly a week ago declaring:Illegal cellphones were the target in a shakedown of the huge Texas prison system, but the first full week of the inch-by-inch inspections has yielded an assortment of contraband, prison officials said Monday...

DNA Forensics Roundup

Posted on November 03, 2008
Several recent DNA-related items deserved Grits readers attention.Do DNA exonerations merit death penalty moratorium?Twenty men exonerated by DNA evidence all gathered in Austin on Friday to call for a moratorium on Texas' death penalty in light of the state's recent slew of long-time inmates proven innocent by applying modern forensics to old evidence, including most recently the exoneration by DNA of Michael Blair who'd been sitting on Texas' death row...

Californians bypass their Legislature on sentencing policy

Posted on November 03, 2008
I received an email over the weekend from a friend in California asking my opinion about Proposition 5, a ballot initiative focused on drug treatment and prison diversion that could reduce the Golden State's inmate population by as much as 10%. While I agreed with her that the initiative and referendum process isn't a great way to pass laws and has caused California a lot of problems, I told her "I'd likely vote for it if I were there...

Economy may doom Smith County's jail building aspirations

Posted on November 02, 2008
An AP story published in the Houston Chronicle says the economy may doom Smith County's jail bond proposal on Tuesday's ballot:The most contentious local bond election Tuesday in Texas might be in Smith County, where voters in the ultraconservative heart of East Texas could reject a jail expansion proposal for the fourth time in three years...

Executed man claimed innocence till the end

Posted on November 01, 2008
To update a prior post, after a stay in the case for last minute DNA testing which proved inconclusive, Gregory Wright became the 14th Texan executed in 2008. (Six more are scheduled between now and the end of November.) Today would have been Wright's 43rd birthday...

Outpatient centers better solution than jails for competency restoration

Posted on November 01, 2008
Four new pilot programs providing outpatient competency restoration services have significantly reduced the number of mentally ill inmates languishing in county jails waiting for state hospital beds to open up, according to a handout from the Department of State Health Services (pdf) distributed last week to a conference sponsored by the Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense...

Pushback beginning on Halloween sex offender hype

Posted on October 31, 2008
I'm glad to see this year more thoughtful critiques popping up of grandstanding by law enforcement and the annual, mostly fact-free media hype surrounding registered sex offenders and Halloween. (See prior, related Grits posts.) In Maryland, officials partially backed off their "scarlet pumpkin" strategy after becoming the butt of national jokes, reports the Washington Times: The bright orange signs, reading, "No candy at this residence," in all capital letters, were sent to the state's 1,200 violent and child sex offenders earlier this month along with instructions that they must post them on their front doors on Friday evening...

Materials from Indigent Defense Conference

Posted on October 31, 2008
In their e-newsletter this week, the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition provided links to presentation materials from a conference I attended last week on indigent defense. They wrote: The Task Force on Indigent Defense (TFID), in collaboration with the Office of Court Administration (OCA), held its 6th Annual Indigent Defense Workshop on October 23-24, 2008...

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