In a January 28, 2020 post titled “Is Arkansas Governor Responsible for Execution of Innocent Man,” we pointed to the fact that Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who has a bloodthirsty penchant for the death penalty, sent four men to their…
Category: Criminal Justice Reform
2021
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Police Brutality | Police Misconduct
The Texas Legislature convened on January 12, 2021.
In a January 19, 2021 post, we pointed out that Rep. Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston) had authored House Bill 88, known as the George Floyd Act. The Texas GFA Act would severely curtail…
2021
Category: Appeals | Criminal Justice Reform | Discovery 39.14 | Prosecutorial Misconduct
Pretrial discovery in criminal cases in Texas is governed by Article 39.14 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. The Texas Legislature enacted the discovery statute in 1965. The essential purpose of the rule was to enforce the strict duty…
2021
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Police Misconduct
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd both intentionally and negligently on May 25, 2020, so said the jury. The jury’s verdict finally confirmed what we all had seen with our own eyes.
Floyd’s horrific murder resulted from…
2021
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Police Misconduct
Most opponents of “police reform” use the tattered and by now the thoroughly discredited argument that police misconduct is the byproduct of “just a few bad apples” among the ranks of the police who are committed to the “protect and…
2021
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Police Misconduct
Racial discrimination in policy and policing has been a consistent problem in Texas since its inception. In a nod to this historical reality, Texas took the small step of putting laws on its books requiring law enforcement agencies to report…
2021
Category: bail reform | Criminal Justice Reform
There has always been a stark contrast between the quality of justice dispensed by the American criminal justice between wealth and poverty. The bottom line is this: justice tends to favor wealth. Some will argue that it is a natural…
2021
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Police Misconduct
The Texas Legislature has a significant piece of legislation pending before it calling for meaningful police reform. The failure to address the merits of the proposed Texas George Floyd Act will result in continued unjustified police misconduct, abuse, and homicides…
2021
Category: bail reform | Criminal Justice Reform
The COVID virus has devastated American jails and prisons. By the end of 2020, one in every five inmates in the country had tested positive for the deadly virus—a rate four times higher than the general population. That translated into…
2021
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Police Brutality
Imagine your nine-year-old daughter handcuffed in the back seat of a police car. Now imagine she was having a mental crisis and was pepper-sprayed by officers called to the scene for assistance, while confined in the back seat of the…