The Dallas Morning News has Governor Perry’s response to Texas’ execution of an innocent man in Cameron Todd Willingham. It involves the use of the phrase “so-called” and air-quotes to deride the fact that the state executed a man based on evidence and testimony that’s provably false.

Y’all might have had your hearts warmed by the story of the Grapevine, TX high school football coach who asked half of his team’s fans and cheerleaders to support the Gainesville State School team, consisting of kids in corrections. ESPN covered it. So did This American Life, national news throughout the country, and there’s apparently a movie underway about the coach. Grits for Breakfast has the two TYC teams’ schedule online now, including a Thursday night game in Austin on October 15. If you were moved by the story – and what are you, made of stone, if you’re not – it might be worth showing up to let them know that being supported isn’t just a one-time thing.

Also on the subject of high school football, an Ohio judge sentenced a teenaged boy who pled to an assault charge to five years of probation and barred him from playing team sports for that period. The story comes from Popehat.com, who rightfully point out that the other terms of his probation – finding full-time work in a state with over 10% unemployment or enrolling as a full-time student – may be difficult without the ability to engage his natural talents. Before the conviction, the boy was being scouted by a number of universities.

Slashdot.com, the somewhat over-reactive online community, is in a tizzy about APD. And, specifically, about Chief Acevedo’s talk about “taking on” people who criticize the department online. The summary of the story from the Statesman that got all the comments on Slashdot is pretty off, though – it misrepresents Acevedo’s position so that it looks like he’s saying, “we’re going to arrest people if they call us jerks”, when he’s really saying “pretending to be an APD official when you’re not and making statements that are untrue is a criminal act”, which is true. Grits for Breakfast pops up again to wonder if this means that, like, all other crime in Austin has been completely eradicated so this is a really good use of police time.

Ever get arrested in a casino? Apparently rather than just break people’s legs for cheating these days, the house will now hold them in custody and offer them the opportunity, sanctioned by a district court judge, to sign a confession, pay $500, and not be prosecuted. Which is a little bit creepy, since if you’re being detained against your will and accused of a crime by people with vast resources, you’re not really in a great position to make a great decision, hence the fact that the practice is now under investigation. Insert your own “whatever happens in Vegas” or “the house always wins” pun here – this practice is apparently good for almost $750,000 a year.

Also on Popehat, there’s a downright terrifying piece about an undercover investigative report from a Florida television station in which they went to various police stations asking for the form to file a complaint. A (very mild) sample:

tester: Do you have a complaint form that I can, like, fill out or something like that?
officer: Might not be a legitimate complaint.
tester: Who decides that?
officer: I’m trying to help you.
tester: Like, if there’s a form, why can’t I just take it and leave, right?
officer: No, you don’t leave with forms. You tell me what happened, and then I help you from there. Do you have I-D on?
tester: Why?
officer: You know what? You need to leave.

(It gets worse from there.)

But in more fun news, Austin solo practice attorney George Lobb crashed the groundbreaking ceremony for the new federal courthouse  in Austin. He brought his own shovel and hardhat, and a real big smile. Click the photo to enlarge. it’s a pretty great picture. he looks very happy to be there.

We’ve also got a bigger piece on this coming up, but in case you missed it last week, Charles Hood, a death row inmate here in Texas, had his motion for a new trial denied by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals even though his prosecutor and the judge were having an affair at the time of his trial and conviction. The argument, as best as I can understand it – and bear in mind that I’m not a lawyer, went something like this:

Appellate Attorney: My client needs a stay of execution, because the judge was sleeping with the prosecutor.

Court: Prove it!

Appellette Attorney proves it by deposing the participants, who admit the affair under oath.

Appellate Attorney: There, proof, now can my client be treated fairly?

Court: Oh, not at this point. You should have done this earlier.

(Cue the wah-wah-WAH sound.)

Labels: abuse of power, APD, art acevedo, football, governor perry, grits for breakfast, in the news, linkdump, money

posted by Dan   permalink   0 Comments

It’s a busy week over here, so blogging has been light. Here are some things we’d probably have written about if we’d had more time:

Lester Johnson, the private investigator whose work helped clear David Lozano of attempted capitol murder charges after a shootout with APD, was honored at the Texas Association of Licensed Investigators convention this week. Interestingly, in the Statesman article’s comments section, Johnson continues to call out APD and the officer who filed an – ahem – unreliable report.

If you’re not totally clear on the backstory on Sharon Keller and her trial, there’s a good primer on it at the StandDown Texas Project. The veeeeery brief version is that Keller, the chief justice of Texas’ highest criminal court, is on trial for judicial misconduct after responding to an attorney whose computer problems were causing him to run a few minutes late while filing an appeal to stay an execution with the words, “We close at five.” He arrived at 5:20, the court refused to accept is filing, and his mentally-handicapped client was executed at 8:23 that evening.

Grits For Breakfast has another good post up – it’s like this is a trend or something – this time on the subject of DWI prevention via public transit and zoning for neighborhood bars. Expect some expanded commentary on this topic in this space coming soon.

The Statesman has an article about thousands of parolees who’ve been classified as sex offenders despite having never been convicted of a sex crime.

Gamso: For The Defense, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite legal blogs, has a smart primer on exactly what different types of pleas mean. It’s a really useful post for non-attorneys like myself, especially, who couldn’t understand that someone who pleads “not guilty” even though they know they did it wasn’t lying.

Houston defense attorney Paul Kennedy has better news for people who were outraged reading about Sharon Keller (which maybe should be everybody) – the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decided to allow an appeal that was filed a day late. The attorney in question blamed the problem on the county’s broken fax machine. Curiously, it appears their fax machine is usually broken when this court-appointed attorney – who takes on 355 felony appointments a year – tries to file appeals, and it usually fixes itself the next day.

Labels: abuse of power, APD, crime prevention, dwi, grits for breakfast, pleas, sex offender registration

posted by Dan   permalink   0 Comments

Austin attorney and former bar association president Mina Brees passed away this weekend. The article touches on some of the controversy surrounding her, but regardless of that, our condolences to her family.

GamsoForTheDefense has a post about a 60-something year old man who's been living in his house for years who, oops, had his address put on the sex offender notification postcards by mistake.

GritsForBreakfast links to a Houston Chronicle op-ed about jail overcrowding. Seriously smart stuff.

Another GritsForBreakfast piece about bait cars, which we've talked about on the blog previously. He makes the cogent point that, if it takes weeks for someone to break into a car WITH THE KEYS INSIDE OF IT AND THE WINDOWS DOWN, the police probably don't need to be so concerned about that neighborhood.

The StandDown Texas Project has a great piece about mental illness and the juvenile justice system here.

And finally, there's a good one in the NYTimes from yesterday by Barbara Ehrenreich about whether or not poverty's become a crime.

Labels: bait cars, grits for breakfast, juveniles, linkdump, sex offender registration

posted by Dan   permalink   0 Comments

Earlier this week, I was talking with Kristin about To Kill a Mockingbird. (It recently played at the Paramount Theatre's Summer Film Series.) I remarked to her that every time I read the book or watch the movie, I find myself truly hoping and thinking that maybe this time Atticus Finch will win the trial and Tom Robinson will go free, even though I already know the ending.

I then pondered out loud whether Finch and Robinson would prevail in this day and age in our home state. Have we made that much progress? Somehow our conversation wandered into a discussion about Timothy Cole, who died in prison after being wrongly convicted of raping a Texas Tech student, and was later exonerated by Judge Charlie Baird after DNA testing proved that he was not the assailant.

Today I read in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the Texas Legislative Council issued a report showing that the Governor has the power to issue poshumous pardons and should do so for Mr. Cole.

Governor Perry has previously stated that an old AG's ruling dictates that in order to issue a posthumous pardon, he must first get authority from Texans through a constitutional amendment. This report now gives him the authority to do so without waiting for the passage of an amendment. As pointed out in an entry on Grits for Breakfast, the worst that could happen is that the courts could later say "no." No one with any standing to sue has threatened to do so, and I cannot dream up any reason for anyone to do so.

While unfortunately this will never bring Mr. Cole back to his family, it is Texas's chance to symbolically change the ending to To Kill a Mockingbird. Sign the pardon, Governor Perry!

Labels: atticus finch, charlie baird, governor perry, grits for breakfast, posthumous pardons, timothy cole, to kill a mockingbird

posted by Kristi Couvillon   permalink   1 Comments