Criminal Law

Will ex-cop, federal marshal be good fit for TYC Ombudsman?

Posted on March 12, 2010
From Mike Ward at the Statesman:John Moore, a retired U.S. marshal and state trooper, was appointed [Wednesday] to be the new independent ombudsman at the Texas Youth Commission. ...Moore, a Denison resident, is retired after a 25-year career as a federal marshal, and served before that as a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper and an officer in the Amarillo Police Department...

Police head-set cams a great idea with few downsides

Posted on March 12, 2010
I think this is an excellent idea that should be implemented widely. Via ABC-News:A new camera and sound system that can be worn like a headset may change police work as we know it. The new Taser head set cam is being tested now in four American cities, and the cops seem to think is it a game changer...

Returning vets face rocky transition from soldier to cop

Posted on March 12, 2010
Given how many law enforcement officers were also part of military reserve units deployed after 9/11, not to mention the fact that police agencies recruit heavily among ex-military, I was interested to see an AP item on a topic I've wondered about: The not-always-smooth transition from soldier to police officer after they return...

Dallas News: 35-year pot sentence unreasonable, excessive

Posted on March 11, 2010
Abraham Lincoln famously said that "The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly." If that's true, perhaps in the future we'll look back at the recent 35-year sentence in Tyler for a petty pot offender as a turning point regarding Texas drug policy...

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Special treatment: 2/3 of inmates would be paroled under lenient standard for defrocked prosecutor

Posted on March 11, 2010
Talk about special treatment by the Texas parole board! According to the Dallas News:See a man off to prison with a 15-year sentence, you expect him to stay gone awhile. Which is why some in Rockwall are surprised to hear that Ray Sumrow is out on parole after 20 months...

The shortest distance to cutting 5% at TDCJ: Reduce drug penalties

Posted on March 10, 2010
A recent 35-year jury sentence for an East Texas pot dealer over a quarter-pound of weed was designed to "send a message," in the prosecutorial parlance. But the real message it sends should be to budget writers at the Texas Legislature: Drug penalties that high are not only unjust but unsustainably expensive...

Unexplored costs from DPS surcharge harm safety, economy

Posted on March 10, 2010
I've been looking at some historical material related to the oxymoronically named "Driver Responsibility" surcharge, and in a January 2007 report from LBB (large pdf), I ran across a sentence that sums up (in LBB's patented, blame-free bureaucratese) the program's basic flaw:The Driver Responsibility Program imposes surcharges as an incentive for drivers to comply with traffic laws, but does not offer any payment alternatives as a further incentive for drivers to comply with the law...

Immigration inmates protest 'system steeped in failure, secrecy and alleged human rights abuses'

Posted on March 10, 2010
The Texas Tribune's Julian Aguilar has a must-read story regarding the battle over inmate conditions in immigrant detention centers. The story opens:Inmates in a South Texas detention facility began a series of staggered hunger strikes in January, hoping for better conditions and fewer transfers, as advocates pleaded for the federal government to come through on failed promises to reform the immigrant-detention system...

Juvie probation directors grumbling over strings attached to diversion grant funds

Posted on March 10, 2010
To get a sense of criticisms being raised by some Texas juvenile probation directors over new diversion grant funds made available by the 81st Legislature aimed at reducing Texas Youth Commission commitments, see the discussion under Item 7 in the minutes (pdf) from the Juvenile Probation Commission's November 20, 2009 meeting...

No metal detectors, x-rays in capitol security plans so far

Posted on March 09, 2010
From Mike Ward at the Austin Statesman:Security at the Texas Capitol will be increased under a seven-step plan approved by the state?s top three leaders and disclosed this morning in a letter delivered to lawmakers. In a letter to Steve McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, Gov...

Amarillo boosters launch premature defense of prison pork

Posted on March 09, 2010
The Amarillo Globe News on Sunday published an odd little journalistic trot down memory lane recounting the 20th anniversary of a behind-the-scenes lobby effort to secure TDCJ's Clements and Neal units in the Amarillo area. But it wasn't until Rev. Charles Kiker sent me a link to this editorial from the Globe-News that I understood the purpose of this rather mundane, non-news in the Sunday paper...

TDCJ budget cut discussions ignore savings from possible prison closures

Posted on March 09, 2010
The Texas House Appropriations Committee yesterday gave Department of Criminal Justice director Brad Livingston a pass on whether prison closures should be part of his agency's budget cutting strategies.He walked the committee through his list of suggested budget cuts (pdf), but legislators allowed these very politicized proposals to frame the terms of debate...

Private prison contract renewals may cost Texas additional millions

Posted on March 08, 2010
At a House Appropriations Committee meeting today, House Corrections Chairman Jim McReynolds asked TDCJ chief Brian Livingston if private prison-contracts up for renewal might increase their rates and increase costs for the state.Livingston said that was possible, since contracts covering the 12,000 or so private beds for which TDCJ contracts are 5-7 years old...

Monday morning roundup

Posted on March 08, 2010
Here are several stories that deserve Grits readers' attention, even if I don't have time to write about each of them individually:Craig Watkins, Royce West, Dallas county constables and a continuing mess, Dallas Morning NewsFamily Affair: District Attorney Craig Watkins family rolling in dough from his campaign funds, Dallas ObserverThe effect of ballot order on judicial races, Off the KuffReintegration a steep climb for some parolees, Longview News-JournalThe Death Penalty in Texas, a change of heart?, Jordan Smith, The Crime ReportTwenty year term: William P...

Absurdist 35-year pot sentence a hometown embarrassment

Posted on March 07, 2010
This absurdist sentence from my hometown embodies much of what's wrong with today's justice system, even if I partially disagree with this writer's diagnosis at the Houston Press' Hairballs blog of the offender's biggest error.Smith County (East Texas) judges and juries have long had a reputation of meting out severe, some might say ridiculous, punishment for drug convictions...

Indigency rules for Driver Responsibility surcharge published in Texas Register

Posted on March 05, 2010
There's good news and bad news on proposed reforms to the Driver Responsibility Surcharge.The good news: The Department of Public Safety today published proposed rule changes in the Texas Register to establish the first-ever indigency program for the surcharge...

Local TX probation faces large, unexpected shortfall

Posted on March 05, 2010
The amount budgeted by the Texas Legislature for basic probation funding in 2010 has fallen short, and state and local probation officials are scrambling to find a solution. A probation official and friend of the blog sends the following note which explained the problem well:There is an unprecedented funding crisis for adult probation in Texas...

No accelerated closure for TYC's Pyote, Victory Field units

Posted on March 05, 2010
The Odessa American reported yesterday that the Texas Youth Commission did not plan to close two facilities - in Pyote and Vernon - earlier than expected. These units were already scheduled to close in August, but TYC told state leaders they could save money by closing them sooner, in early April...

Texas CCA recognizes two more non-DNA exonerations

Posted on March 04, 2010
According to AP: A Texas appeals court has agreed to set aside the convictions of two Dallas men wrongly imprisoned for capital murder. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a ruling Wednesday agreeing that 39-year-old Christopher Scott and 54-year-old Claude Simmons Jr...

Dems' demagoguery over ex-offender business owners counterproductive

Posted on March 04, 2010
Another of the Texas Democratic Party's top ten attacks against Republicans in 2010 they've identified is that the Public Utility Commission regulates businesses owned by people with criminal records. "PUC allows criminals to manage prepaid electric providers," screamed the headline to a widely circulated Democratic attack piece...

Should Democrats attack Rick Perry over TYC?

Posted on March 04, 2010
In the aftermath of Rick Perry's trouncing of Kay Bailey Hutchison in the GOP gubernatorial primary, Emily Ramshaw and Jason Embry have been suggesting attacks on the incumbent they thought Hutchison should have waged and now think Democrat Bill White should embrace...

Emu Payback?

Posted on March 03, 2010
Via AP, yesterday:A mad emu gave deputies a Texas-sized hard time. El Paso authorities say the big bird was running loose Tuesday, snarling rush-hour traffic near Interstate 10 and attacking deputies trying to restrain it. Deputies with the El Paso County Sheriff's Office tried to prevent the tall, flightless bird from running into traffic...

On the limits of surveillance cameras for crime reduction

Posted on March 03, 2010
Security guru Bruce Schneier had a recent column for CNN on the limits of security benefits from surveillance cameras in public spaces. It covers much ground traversed on Grits in the past, but states (and sources) the arguments especially well. Here's a taste:Pervasive security cameras don't substantially reduce crime...

Divisions among Governor, legislators over airport-style security at Texas capitol entrances

Posted on March 02, 2010
Reporting on the same state senate hearing described in this Grits post last week, the Texas Tribune's Brandi Grissom today notes that Gov. Perry is not on board with the Department of Public Safety's plans to install metal detectors and x-rays at entrances to the capitol:Gov...

Central Unit trusty broke out of, and back into, prison 70 times for shopping trips

Posted on March 02, 2010
More detail from Mike Ward at the Statesman on what's apparently a chronic problems with prisonsers walking off the Central Unit in Sugarland to shop at a nearby Walmart (you can't make this stuff up):Prison officials never knew he was gone.And after they were tipped to the late-night trip, officials confirmed Monday, they had to verify the escape by viewing the store's surveillance camera system ? which was much better than the one the prison has...

Funding for research needed as much as oversight to validate forensic sciences

Posted on March 02, 2010
Calling for "oversight" can improve public confidence in the short term, but it's not a panacea for every public policy mess. Sometimes instead, or at least in addition, government actually must focus resources to solve a problem instead of merely "monitor" the continuing failure of existing public policies...

Timothy Cole pardon recommended: How many more false convictions are out there?

Posted on March 01, 2010
The Texas Board of Pardons and Parole has recommended a pardon for Timothy Cole, who died in prison of an asthma attack before DNA could prove he was innocent of the rape for which he was falsely convicted. Reports the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:It would be the state's first posthumous pardon, and Perry has indicated that he would sign an order clearing Cole's name if recommended by the board...

Defendant: 'I plead guilty'; Prosecutor: 'We're going to trial'

Posted on March 01, 2010
If a defendant pleads guilty to all charges without a plea bargain, leaving their sentence entirely to the court, why would a prosecutor ever demand a jury trial?Bill Baumbach at the Collin County Observer describes a case from his neck of the woods where prosecutors have done precisely that, refusing to accept a guilty plea to insist that the defendant be taken to trial instead...

Which prison units should Texas close? Private contracts, security concerns may factor in

Posted on March 01, 2010
After Nicole at Texas Prison Bidness suggested private prison contracts might end up on the chopping block in light of Texas' massive budget shortfall predicted by the next legislative session, I asked the Department of Criminal Justice which private prison contracts will be up in the coming year...

'Seat belts for thee but not for me'; Unbuckled police pay with their lives

Posted on March 01, 2010
Nationwide, about 40% of police officers killed in auto accidents on the job weren't wearing their seatbelts, according to an excellent story by Moises Mendoza at the Houston Chronicle ("Unbuckled but unbowed," March 1). What's more, because of conservative data definitions used by the paper, the 40% number significantly "undercounts the number of officers killed while unbuckled...

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