From Grits for Breakfast: Debtors prison and the Great Texas Warrant Roundup

Debtors prisons aren't allowed under the Texas Bill of Rights, but they still seem to exist.

- Click here for the article.

The State’s unreasonable traffic ticket scheme and the devastation it can wreak on low-income Texans receive considerably less attention.

Depending on the jurisdiction, a ticket for failing to signal a lane change—the pretext for Sandra Bland’s tragic traffic stop—will cost you around $66. But the State tacks on $103 in court costs and a host of fees, some bordering on Kafkaesque. Texas will charge you a public defender fee, even though courts refuse to appoint a public defender for traffic ticket cases. If your fine is already too expensive to afford, Texas charges a fee to put you on a payment plan. You’ll even pay an “administrative fee” for the privilege of handing money over to the court. For people who are too poor to pay their tickets, that $66 fine can grow to over $500.

If you can’t afford to keep up with these fees, the State will suspend renewal of your driver’s license (add another $30 for the License Renewal Suspension Fee), and you’ll be unable to register your car, making it illegal for you to drive to the job you need to take care of your kids and pay off your spiraling debt. An expired registration means you’re certain to be pulled over and put back at square one, with new tickets, new fines, new fees, and no hope.

From the Texas Tribune: Hearing on Innocence Commission Bill Draws Heated Testimony

This is an old story - from May of last year - but it touches on an issue raised in the section on criminal justice in the state. What to do about the number of convicted felons in the state who have been exonerated of their crimes, along with the suspicion that other people may week be also convicted of crimes they did not commit?

Should an Innocence Commission be established to deal with them?

The story highlights a contentious hearing where the need for a commission was debated:

The brother of an exoneree who died while wrongly imprisoned shouted at a senator and former prosecutor on Tuesday during a committee hearing that turned explosive, saying her attitude was deplorable and she should get a new job before storming out while muttering an expletive.

Cory Session, the brother of Tim Cole, who was posthumously exonerated of rape charges, shouted at state Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Southside Place, after she voiced opposition to a proposal to create a commission that would investigate wrongful convictions in Texas.

Several men who spent time in prison for crimes they did not commit were among those who testified during the Senate Criminal Justice Committee hearing aboutHouse Bill 166, by state Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio, which would create an "innocence commission."

Under the bill, members appointed by the governor would investigate wrongful convictions, identify why they occur and examine appeals filed with the state’s courts for evidence of ethical violations by attorneys and judges.

Session, who works with the Innocence Project of Texas, criticized Huffman, a former prosecutor and criminal court judge, over her opposition to the bill. He accused her of standing in the way of reforms to prevent wrongful convictions.

"The eyes of Texas have been closed on criminal justice reform," said Session. Session also said that Texas Supreme Court Justice Wallace Jefferson and other judges have supported the proposed commission. "The attitude you have is deplorable," he said to Huffman. "I am sickened. ... I am pissed off."

The panel highlighted a study commissioned by the 81st legislature on wrongful convictions.

- Click here for the report, and here for the Texas Indigent Defense Commission.

As with the rest of the United States, the criminal justice system in Texas is commonly accused of not providing adequate opportunities for the poor to defend themselves. Beyond that, there is little consensus that such opportunities are either necessary - or worth funding.

Zimmerman arrested and charged - What roles will each participant in the case play?

A good story for 2302 as we continue looking at the judiciary, and the criminal justice process in general. 2301s shoudl consider this case also as it opens a handful of issues related to the rights of criminal defendants, as well as those related to stand your ground laws.

The NYT details the decision to charge George Zimmerman with Trayvon Martin's shooting, and attempts to outline the events leading to the shooting (the facts of the case as best they can be discerned).

The Atlantic discusses what will be required of the prosecutor, the defendant, and the judge in the case. Given the amount of publicity the case has had - how likely will he get a fair trial?

Harris County Public Defender Board Appointed

From the Chron:

Commissioners Court has appointed the 15 members of the first Harris County Public Defender Board, which will oversee the public defender office scheduled to launch early next year.



The members are:


Commissioner El Franco Lee
Commissioner Sylvia Garcia
Judge Mike Anderson, criminal district courts
Judge Mike Schneider, juvenile district courts
Judge Jean Hughes, county criminal courts
Bob Wessels, manager of county courts
Clay Bowman, administrator of district courts
George McCall Secrest, Jr., Houston Bar Association
Andrew G. McGee, Houston Lawyers Association
Joel Edward Salazar, Mexican American Bar Association
Lawrence D. Finder, attorney at Haynes and Boone
Mark Hochglaube, indigent defense attorney
Kathryn M. Kase, senior staff attorney at Texas Defender Service (Disclosure: Kase is the wife of Chronicle Editor Jeff Cohen)
Rev. James Edward Nash, Sunnyside Place Community Development Corporation
Marcia Johnson, Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University
- Wikipedia: Public Defender.

Miranda Warnings Narrowed

The Supreme Court narrowed the impact of Miranda Warnings by ruling that a suspect that remains silent has not implicitly invoked the right against self incrimination. Simply remaining silent is not enough to establish that one claims the right to remain silent. The decision continues the current courts march rightward, in this case in terms of the rights of criminal defendant v the police.

The case is Berghuis v. Thompkins

- ScotusWiki.
- ScotusBlog.
- The Washington Post.
- New York Times.
- The Decision.