Criminal Law

What were the terms of TYC's settlement with the US Justice Department over the Evins unit?

Posted on May 10, 2008
The Texas Youth Commission and the US Justice Department entered into a settlement this week over allegations of abuse at the Evins unit in South Texas, but the MSM coverage was pretty vague and I haven't had time until this morning to review the Agreed Order itself (which Jim Hurley graciously emailed me upon request - it's not online)...

Cedric Benson learns there are some things in life Mom can't help you with: Like police brutality

Posted on May 09, 2008
I don't frequently blog about celebrity crime cases, but the story of Chicago Bears running back Cedric Benson's run in with officers from the Lower Colorado River Authority appears to have more dramatic twists the more we learn about it.Benson was a star at UT Austin but has been a bust on the field in Chicago, so his legal troubles aren't earning him much love among Windy City sportswriters or fans...

More from the Texas Innocence Summit

Posted on May 09, 2008
Just wanted to mention a couple more highlights from yesterday's "Innocence Summit" in the Texas Chambers before putting my notes away:Robert Wilonsky cited AP for the money quote from Dallas DA Craig Watkins' presentation, that "It can be argued that Texas ...

Elected officials to blame for Harris jail overcrowding, says editorial

Posted on May 09, 2008
Earlier this week Grits placed the blame for Harris County jail overcrowding at the feet of their elected officials, especially local judges, and an editorial this morning in the Houston Chronicle agreed, concluding:A large part of the jail overcrowding problem resides with the elected judges here...

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Innocence summit drew officials, opinion leaders from around the state

Posted on May 08, 2008
I attended this afternoon an interesting "summit" on innocence and wrongful convictions in the Senate chamber at the Texas capitol.I was a bit annoyed when I was told bloggers couldn't go onto the Senate floor because we're not real journalists, so I didn't get to take the photos I'd hope to get...

Roy Mersky, RIP

Posted on May 08, 2008
Claire Osborn has a nice and well-deserved obituary in the Austin Statesman for the late great Roy Mersky, who ran the UT-Austin law library since before I was born. Osborn writes:Roy Mersky was a giant in his field who made the University of Texas law library one of the best in the nation, friends and colleagues said...

Dallas prosecutor backs shift to 'double-blind' lineups

Posted on May 08, 2008
I'd missed the outstanding news, found via the Eyewitness ID Blog, that Dallas prosecutor Mike Ware (who's spearheading DA Craig Watkins efforts along with the Innocence Project of Texas to identify and reverse wrongful past convictions) now wants to make double blind photo lineups mandatory...

Did understaffing cause "riot" at TYC's Gidding unit?

Posted on May 07, 2008
I'm curious to hear reactions from readers who work at the Texas Youth Commission about the disruption at the Giddings Unit (or "riot," depending on who you talk to) on May 5. AP reported that:More than 70 inmates at a Texas juvenile prison ran from their dorms and climbed into trees or on top of buildings before staff got them all back inside, Texas Youth Commission staff said Tuesday...

Fusion center intelligence gathering in crisis limited to watching local TV news

Posted on May 07, 2008
The Collin County Observer poses a terrific question: What good is the North Texas Fusion Center - an intelligence gathering collaboration between various regional law enforcement agencies - if during a crisis they're getting their information from the local TV news channel like everyone else?Bill Baumbach put it succinctly: No one seems to be asking the questions, "Why have millions been poured into an early warning system if local officials still believe their best information is from Channel 8?"Related Grits coverage:Fusion centers in Texas: What we have here is a failure to communicateFusion centers might be scary if they actually workedThe Governor's Great Border Security Power GrabPerry moves to consolidate intelligence gathering in Governor's officeBiometrics slope got slippery awfully quick

Mexican Cartels openly recruiting military, courting public opinion

Posted on May 07, 2008
Here's an amazing example of chutzpah in Gulf Cartel recruiting efforts in Nuevo Laredo: The Washington Post has a fascinating story about public recruiting efforts by the cartels: It was printed on a 16-foot-wide banner and strung above one of the busiest roads here, calling out to any "soldier or ex-soldier...

Why won't Texas officials admit YFZ call was hoax?

Posted on May 07, 2008
The first of 463 individual child custody hearings from the Great Eldorado Polygamist Roundup (which is the appellation I've settled on for the incident on this blog), will begin in Judge Walther's court on May 19, reports the Dallas News today...

Judge Mary Roman's re-election ensures an "absence of an impartial judge on the bench"

Posted on May 07, 2008
When San Antonio District Judge Mary Roman presides over a criminal case, as the Fourth Court of Appeals recently put it when overturning a death sentence issued by her court, defendants may suffer from the "absence of an impartial judge on the bench...

Counting the Innocent: A discussion of estmates

Posted on May 06, 2008
As the number of exonerated Texans mount, the media and courts have begun to indulge in speculation as to just how many more actually innocent people might be locked up, both in Texas and elsewhere across the country.The United States has less than 5% of the planet's population but 25% of the earth's prisoners...

Solutions for Harris County jail overcrowding may come at ballot box

Posted on May 06, 2008
I'm beginning to think the only way to solve Harris County's jail overcrowding problem may be at the ballot box this fall.It's been clear for a while now what policies the county needs to implement to reduce overcrowding, but I don't think they can happen unless voters oust judges who refuse to stop requiring high bail for low-level crimes, not to mention the Chuck-Rosenthal era prosecutorial leadership that's spearheaded policies that overuse the jail...

As execution dates resume, how many on Texas death row are likely innocent?

Posted on May 05, 2008
After a brief moratorium in 1922 when Texas shifted executions from the hangings at county jails to electrocution at the state prison in Huntsville, five men were executed on the first day capital punishment was reinstated. Texas won't reach that clip anytime soon, but the execution dates are being set so rapidly right now TDCJ hasn't had time yet to update its website...

Texas AG: Lege intended prosecution of participants in needle exchange pilot it authorized

Posted on May 05, 2008
Egged on by Bexar County DA Susan Reed, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott sided opponents of a legislatively approved needle exchange program in San Antonio, likely pushing the issue to the courts - in the form of the prosecution of Christian activist Bill Day, who was arrested for distributing clean needles to addicts - and back to the Legislature in 2009...

First officer from Dallas fake drug scandal heads to prison

Posted on May 05, 2008
Nearly seven years after Dallas authorities became aware that fake drugs had been by a crooked confidential informant in cahoots with corrupt cops used to trump up charges against two dozen defendants, the first involved police officer, Mark Delapaz, has exhausted his appeals and is finally headed to prison for a five year term...

E-harassment law too vague even for CCA

Posted on May 04, 2008
At Not Guilty, criminal defense lawyer Doug Weathers informs us that the "rarest of events has occurred here in Texas": "A criminal statute has been declared unconstitutional on its face by the Court of [Criminal] Appeals."The statute is a part of the harassment statute, namely Section 42...

Dallas DA proposes penalties for "Brady" violations

Posted on May 04, 2008
Demonstrating there's always more than one way to skin a cat, Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins has proposed a way to break through the perennial debate over whether DA's should have "open files" in criminal cases to disclose potentially exculpatory evidence: leave the rules the way they are and establish criminal penalties for prosecutors who violate "Brady" rules about disclosing exculpatory evidence...

Use of immigration holds upon arrest taking up scarce Travis jail space

Posted on May 04, 2008
The Travis County Jail is perennially overcrowded, but the Sheriff says he would be "derelict" if he didn't voluntarily pursue policies that worsened the problem. Count me among the skeptical.At issue: Whether to put an immigration hold on immigrants who're charged with crimes upon arrest or upon conviction...

Hundreds of Bexar DWI cases dismissed because of missing police witnesses

Posted on May 03, 2008
To hear complaints about the "stop snitching" slogans proffered by law enforcement, you'd think there's an epidemic going on of witnesses who don't cooperate with criminal prosecutions.It's true, in a sense, but in San Antonio the witnesses most likely not to show up in court turn out to be police officers, reported WOAI radio (4/29), which recently analyzed missing witnesses in DWI cases...

Why wouldn't call for FLDS asset seizure equally apply to Catholicism?

Posted on May 03, 2008
I was surprised to see Houston Chronicle columnist Rick Casey calling for seizure of all Texas assets of the YFZ Ranch as a next step in Texas' biggest ever child welfare boondoggle. That's not just putting the cart before the horse, it's putting it in front of a bus...

James Lee Woodard on 60 Minutes Sunday

Posted on May 02, 2008
Sixty Minutes on Sunday will tell the story of James Lee Woodard, who was released from a Texas prison this year after doing 27 years of a life sentence for a crime he didn't commit.Also featured in the piece will be Dallas County DA Craig Watkins and Innocence Project of Texas attorney Jeff Blackburn...

Breathalyzers for thee but not for me

Posted on May 02, 2008
For years Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley has been on the warpath regarding drivers stopped for DWI who refuse breath tests, even though most criminal defense lawyers will tell you the technology is unreliable and not worth risking your liberty over...

Whistleblower alleges document fraud at Geo Group-run federal prison

Posted on May 01, 2008
A whistleblowing prison guard at a private facility run by the Geo Group in Pecos was escorted off the site after he reported ongoing misconduct to the local Sheriff, he blogs at This Ain't My First Rodeo. The blog cites:allegations of fraud committed under his direction in which case managers tricked functionally illiterate foreign nationals incarcerated at RCDC facilities into signing out-dated incident reports against them so that The GEO Group administrators would not incur the wrath of BOP officials for administrative negligence, a characteristic -- among others even more nefarious -- for which they have become infamous in GEO's central region which includes Texas...

Misleading PR initiative by DFPS muddies YFZ Ranch debate

Posted on May 01, 2008
The Texas Department of Family Protective Services this week launched an aggressive public relations initiative to justify its raid on the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado, and increasingly their much-hyped claims appear awfully thin.First they issued statistics alleging 60% of teen girls at the ranch were pregnant or had kids, without adding that more than 80% of the girls so identified disputed the agency's assessment of their ages...

Kuff does Garcia's oppo research in Harris County Sheriff's race

Posted on May 01, 2008
Kuff says "the race for Harris County Sheriff has two contenders with vast differences. Incumbent Sheriff Tommy Thomas has been around forever, while his Democratic opponent, Adrian Garcia, is a part of the new generation in county politics. In style and substance, it's the good old boy versus the new kid...

Arson cases may be next venue for innocence claims

Posted on May 01, 2008
I spent yesterday afternoon with Jeff Blackburn of the Innocence Project of Texas, who was in Austin to visit with legislators and media about James Lee Woodard, an innocent man who spent 27 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Woodard walked out of court in Dallas a free man on Tuesday...

Redefining drug war success

Posted on May 01, 2008
In a story in The Economist today about the decline in meth lab busts caused by restrictions on pseudoephedrine, the magazine offers this backhanded praise for the policies, despite evidence that drug subsitution and Mexican imports have largely supplanted domestic demand:This does not mean the campaign against meth has been pointless...

Donate to Grits' crime victim compensation fund

Posted on April 30, 2008
It's been quite a while since I've asked readers to support Grits for Breakfast with donations, but a series of petty crimes has put me in a squeeze. If you're a regular reader of this blog and are able to do so, I hope you can help out.Here's the scenario: First, my wife and I last week discovered that we'd been victims of identity theft, with someone in New York draining our bank account from afar...

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