Criminal Law

SCOTUS: Police can still try to interrogate you after you request a lawyer if they wait 14 days

Posted on February 26, 2010
I should at least mention an important ruling by the US Supreme Court this week that moved the goalposts significantly for defendants regarding police interrogations and the right to counsel. Via SCOTUSBlog,The Court?s decision [Wednesday] in Maryland v...

Clearing the desk: Rounding up Texas justice stories

Posted on February 26, 2010
Here are a few items about which I apparently won't get around to writing full blog posts this week, despite my best intentions, but which may interest Grits readers heading into the weekend:DNA database for infants as well as crooks?The state appears to be backtracking now, but a lot more babies than crooks have had their DNA compiled in state databases over the last few years, reports the Texas Tribune...

Obama dawdling on most Texas US Attorney appointments

Posted on February 26, 2010
Apparently the Texas delegation has sorted out its druthers regarding Texas' US Attorney nominations, and now the ball is in President Obama's court. Today he announced the nomination of Judge John B. Stevens, Jr. as the new US Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas...

Paris, TX may be scene of next DNA exoneration

Posted on February 25, 2010
Texas may see yet another post-conviction DNA exoneration today out of Paris, TX, after DNA on an alleged murder weapon turned out not to belong to the victim or the defendant. A judge this morning will determine whether this means the defendant gets a new trial now that the main evidence against him has been debunked...

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DPS plan would put x-rays, metal detectors at Texas capitol entrances

Posted on February 25, 2010
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw told the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee earlier this month that DPS plans to put metal detectors and X-Ray machines at the entrances to the state capitol to aid in "gun detection...

What role should crime victims play in plea bargains?

Posted on February 25, 2010
Prosecutors represent the state, not crime victims, and they're charged with seeking justice, not convictions. But the Houston Press published a feature questioning whether prosecutors should be required to notify crime victims or get their sign-off before entering into a plea deal...

Harris County owed millions by bond companies for bail skips

Posted on February 24, 2010
In a must read story, Lise Olsen reported yesterday ("Bail bonds no bounty for Harris County") that "A Houston Chronicle review shows 500 current and former bond companies and individuals still owe taxpayers more than $26 million in default judgments, some dating back decades...

Charles Hood death sentence thrown out: Texas CCA admits it 'completely misunderstood' SCOTUS for past 20 years

Posted on February 24, 2010
Here's another astonishing development in the increasingly infamous Charles Dean Hood case: The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals this morning threw out Hood's death sentence (!), not because the judge and prosecutor were sleeping together (which wasn't an issue of six of them) but instead thanks to a flip flop over claims about flawed jury instructions that the court had earlier rejected...

Indigent Defense Summit today

Posted on February 24, 2010
An "Indigent Defense Summit" begins at 9 a.m. this morning at the Texas capitol with opening remarks from state Sen. Rodney Ellis. You can watch the day-long event online at this link. Here's the agenda (pdf). I can't attend but plan to watch as much as I can online.

Shocker of the Day: DOJ rarely disciplines its prosecutors

Posted on February 24, 2010
Let me refer readers to a good overview of deficiencies in federal oversight of prosecutorial misconduct by the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility from the blog EmptyWheel, following up on analyses by Mike at Crime and Federalism and recent journalistic critiques...

CA prosecutors dismiss high-profile case based on false results from Texas forensics expert

Posted on February 24, 2010
A speaker at today's Indigent Defense Summit referenced a high-profile case dismissed in northern California this week after it was discovered that Houston-area forensic lab called Expertox allegedly generated false lab results that were later debunked by multiple other scientists...

You love to fly and it shows

Posted on February 23, 2010
Bruce Schneier, who is a frequent critic of pointless airport "security theater" (a term he coined) held a contest to create a humorous new logo for the Transportation Security Administration. Upon describing some of the entries to the missus, she instructed me, "Put a link to that on your blog so I can look at it later...

TYC sex abuse case in Pyote will finally begin soon

Posted on February 23, 2010
The trial of former TYC administrator Ray Brookins - who was accused of sexually assaulting youth under their care at the West Texas State School in Pyote - is scheduled to begin April 20, some three years after charges were filed. The Odessa American has an article today covering a pretrial hearing in which the two sides debated whether pornography and sex toys in Brookins' possession at the facility could be admitted as evidence (the judge will rule later, prior to the trial)...

Budget cuts at Harris jail could preclude expansion plebiscite

Posted on February 23, 2010
Demands by the commissioners court that Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia cut tens of millions from his department's budget could put the kabosh, one would think on a plebiscite to expand the jail which had been suggested for later this year. Reports KTRK-TV: Harris County Commissioners are trying to figure out how to make up for falling tax revenues...

Stay warm

Posted on February 23, 2010
We got just enough of a snow flurry in Austin today for a little to stick on the ground a couple of hours. Watching my dogs leaving tentative footprints and yellow trails in the snow before begging to be let back inside recalled a photo I noticed recently via the Texas State Troopers Association - a shot from Feb...

House Corrections Committee has much to discuss regarding probation/diversion programs

Posted on February 22, 2010
The Texas House Corrections Committee will meet March 17 at the capitol to discuss one of its interim charges:Charge 2: Study and evaluate the availability and efficiency of community-based corrections supervision and treatment programs and their impact on prison capacity and recidivism rates...

Taking the easy way out: Dallas police substitute 'knock and talk' for real investigation

Posted on February 22, 2010
Last Wednesday at the Dallas News Crime Blog, Steve Thompson reported that:Dallas police began a new initiative today to combat drugs. Citywide, officers are headed to suspected drug houses to "knock and talk" with the occupants. The technique involves knocking on the door of a suspected drug house and trying to talk the people inside into inviting officers in to search without a warrant...

Will SCOTUS benchslap Texas CCA for tolerating judicial tryst?

Posted on February 22, 2010
The New York Times' Adam Liptak today reviewed the request by Charles Dean Hood for the US Supreme Court to decide whether Hood's due process rights were violated because the prosecutor and judge in his capital murder case engaged in a romantic affair...

US Attorney should step in if Dallas DA won't pursue allegedly corrupt constables

Posted on February 21, 2010
I agree with most of what the Dallas News had to say in this editorial yesterday calling for District Attorney Craig Watkins to investigate and prosecute alleged crimes and abuses by Dallas County constables. Opined the News: As Watkins is quick to point out, if anyone is going to investigate allegations that county constables broke the law, it's going to be him and his office...

Ticket roundups are taxation masquerading as a public safety initiative

Posted on February 19, 2010
Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley called the Driver Responsibility surcharge "taxation masquerading as a public safety initiative," and I can't think of a better description for these increasingly common "ticket roundups" like the one more than 250 Texas law enforcement agencies will participate in March 6...

Dallas, Sugarland locals to TDCJ: Move, please

Posted on February 19, 2010
I mentioned in the last post that local political interests wanted to close the Central Unit in Sugarland, but neglected to add that the Dawson State Jail in downtown Dallas similarly stands in the way of development the city would like to promote along the Trinity River...

Might private prisons face budget cut axe?

Posted on February 19, 2010
Nicole at Texas Prison Bidness makes a good point: Politically, the easiest prison beds for the state to cut as a result of the coming predicted budget crunch might be those operated by private contractors.She observed that the Department of Criminal Justice already suggested the possibility of eliminating 817 private prison beds, saving $10...

Texas AG: Sheriffs can't accept extra pay from private prison contractors

Posted on February 19, 2010
See the opinion (pdf) and coverage from Texas Prison Bidness.

Sex Parte Redux: SCOTUS should "remedy appalling acts by a judge and officer of the court" in Charles Hood case, since Texas CCA won't

Posted on February 19, 2010
Bully for the Constitution Project and the former federal judges and other officials who signed an amicus brief requesting the Supreme Court of the United States hear the Charles Dean Hood case, in which the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied a habeas petition without giving a reason after the trial judge and prosecutor lied about or concealed an affair that occurred before and possibly during the trial...

Fort Hood shooter may be housed in Bell County Jail

Posted on February 19, 2010
Some national politicos have worked themselves into a tizzy over whether alleged terrorists should be brought to New York City and put on trial for the 9/11 attacks. So it's an especially odd juxtaposition from that debate to learn that the Fort Hood shooter Maj...

New Driver Responsibility rules unveiled today at DPS

Posted on February 18, 2010
Despite recent coverage in the Dallas News declaring proposed amendments to the Driver Responsibility surcharge had been dropped, the Public Safety Commission today will take up proposed revisions to the rules, which haven't yet been publicly released...

Examiner: Findings from Sharon Keller misconduct case left too much unsaid

Posted on February 18, 2010
The case against Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller has never been more strongly laid out than in the 14-pages of objections to Judge David Berchelmann's Findings of Fact, which purported to exculpate the state's top criminal court jurist...

Faulty Texas eyewitness case examined by NCSL

Posted on February 17, 2010
At the National Conference of State Legislators' Thicket blog, I ran across this post featuring audio files from a recent forum in San Diego, CA, featuring audio files of presentations from Texas exoneree Thomas McGowan, the victim in his case, as well as state Rep...

Cutting state psych hospital budgets could backfire

Posted on February 17, 2010
The last post focused on budget cuts proposed by Texas criminal justice agencies, but in the San Antonio Express News I noticed this possible cut in the human services sector that could give county jails a lot of problems if enacted:Some agencies had made their proposals public earlier, including human services agencies that could save $303 million in state spending through such cuts as reducing Medicaid reimbursements for health-care providers and serving fewer patients at four state psychiatric hospitals, including the one in San Antonio...

Examiner's objections due today in Sharon Keller removal proceedings

Posted on February 17, 2010
Today is the deadline for any objections by the examiner to findings of fact by the Special Master in Judge Sharon Keller's case before the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct. I'll post a link when it becomes available.RELATED: Examiner's objections due soon in Sharon Keller removal proceedings.

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