The Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense today approved money to help establish a public defender’s office in Harris County — the largest urban area in the nation without one — along with a slate of measures meant to prevent innocent people from serving time.
Rodney Ellis
Posted inState Government
Accounts Playable
The 2,694 political committees and campaigns that filed mid-year reports with the Texas Ethics Commission together held $167 million in their accounts, but only 274 of them had more than $100,000 on hand. Our interactive chart tells you who or what they are and how much they’ve banked.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Sued Into Silence
Plaintiffs in so-called strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPPs, use the court system to bury opponents in a crush of legal fees and paperwork of Bleak House proportions. They’re not concerned about winning damages. They usually don’t expect to be successful, and the targets often don’t have the money to adequately defend themselves. Yet in otherwise tort-reform-happy Texas, there is no prohibition on filing this particular form of meritless suit — yet.
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Criminal Justice
The Big House Isn’t Big Enough
At today’s hearing of the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, Sheriff Adrian Garcia will be grilled about efforts to control overcrowding at Harris County’s four jail facilities, which have seen a dramatic population spike. At the urging of Houston lawmakers, Garcia will be pressed to explain why he wants to keep housing more inmates than the facilities can accommodate, and why some recommendations by the county’s own consultant for ways to reduce its jail population have gone unheeded.
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Criminal Justice
TribBlog: More Calls for Innocence Commission
Michael Anthony Green was supposed to be freed today after serving 27 years for a rape he didn’t commit. The exoneration is the second in two weeks to come from Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos’ Post Conviction Review Section. State Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, said the findings give more credence to his argument that Texas needs a state innocence commission.
Posted in
State Government
TribBlog: A Matter of Jurisdiction [Updated]
While delivering their report, members of the subcommittee charged with reviewing the Cameron Todd Willingham case said that though they believe the science used to convict the Corsicana man was flawed, they aren’t prepared to say the fire investigator, whose testimony was used to convict him, committed professional misconduct.
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Criminal Justice
Age of Innocence
More than 120 college students worked 12,300 hours-plus on Innocence Project of Texas cases from 2007 to 2009, according to the Task Force on Indigent Defense. As student participation has increased, so have exonerations.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Defenseless
Before adopting the Fair Defense Act in 2001, Texas was considered abysmal in legal circles when it came to providing representation for the poor. Proponents and critics of the current system agree the situation has improved since lawmakers started requiring counties to implement minimum representation standards. But has it improved enough?
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Criminal Justice
The War at Home
For many of the more than 150,000 Texans who have returned from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, the struggle to cope with the horrors they’ve seen can result in drug addiction and violent outbursts. To deal with those harsh realities, 10 counties are working to establish “veterans courts” that would emphasize treatment or counseling over punishment.
Posted inState Government
Rodney Ellis on Bringing Gaming Back
Could casino gaming be coming to Texas? State Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, who’s tried and failed to pass gambling legislation in recent sessions, thinks the coming budget crisis gives him and other supporters an opportunity.
