It's been a busy past couple weeks here, but we're mostly caught up. To celebrate, the return of the weekly link round-up:

• As has been widely discussed, Texas executed Cameron Todd Willingham, an innocent man. There's been a lot of discussion on it, most of which I won't link to here, though a lot of smart people said a lot of thoughtful things. I did think this was a really unique take on it, though - a blog post by Houston defense attorney Mark Bennett in which he breaks down the potential criminal liability for murder for the prosecutor, jurors, judge, etc.
• Michigan, among other states, is expanding its clemency and parole programs in the face of budget cuts. They're releasing nearly 10% of their prison population and closing 5 of their existing prisons. Is it possible that we'll see a more rational policy regarding ballooning prison populations as a result of the recession?
• A Houston-based DWI attorney asks whether "Drink. Drive. Go To Jail." billboards poison the jury pool against clients who may have had a beer but who weren't actually intoxicated. It's an interesting question, and one that is frequently misunderstood. "Drinking and driving" is a frequent substitute phrase for "drunk driving", but there's a clear difference between the two.
• Federal court declares that flipping the middle finger, even to a cop, is protected speech. Still probably not an awesome idea.
• There's a scary piece in the NYT about how easy it is to fabricate DNA evidence.
• In a bit of neat news, Travis County is holding an in-jail job fair. It's exciting to see rehabilitation and providing incarcerated people with genuine opportunity to rebuild as they're released taken seriously. And the partial list of employers holds a few cool surprises - while you can expect that non-profits like Goodwill and Easter Seals will be interested in fulfilling their mission, the presence of businesses like Titus Electrical Contracting, who could just as easily take a PR hit as gain an advantage by employing people who've been convicted of a crime, is really encouraging.
• Gamso For The Defense has a wrap-up of various small-town police abuses. Some of them are almost funny in how unspeakably awful they are - like the Arkansas cops who shot an unarmed man in the back in the middle of court for complaining about their speed traps - and others, like the Georgia pastor who was shot and killed by undercover police for not stopping at a gas station when they ran out, guns drawn, to question him about a suspect that had been under surveillance whom he was counseling, are just tragic.
• In happier news: The Statesman and our four TV news networks successfully pushed a state District judge to ensure an open courtroom in jury selection.
• Here in Texas, clients have the right to a jury trial in DWI cases. That's not so in every state. And the Supreme Court doesn't think it should be, because what "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury" really means is in cases that are serious, not frivolous stuff like DWI. Which sets off a logic trap consisting of, if DWI cases aren't serious, then why are they prosecuted and met with fees and surcharges, etc.

posted by Dan   permalink   0 Comments