Racially Motivated Traffic Stop and Arrest by Texas Police Leads to Settlement by Christopher Zoukis by Christopher Zoukis After police in Brownsville, Texas, arrested a man for drunk driving and running a red light when tests showed that he was not intoxicated, the man sued for racially motivated …
Estes v. State of Texas, opinion, sexual assault on child penalty, 2018 IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TEXAS NO. PD-0429-16 RUSSELL LAMAR ESTES, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS ON STATE’S & APPELLANT’S PETITIONS FOR DISCRETIONARY REVIEW FROM THE SECOND COURT OF APPEALS TARRANT COUNTY K EASLER, J., …
Garcia v. Texas, deportation misadvice, review and opinion, 2018 IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS OF TEXAS NO. PD-0804-17 EX PARTE SAMUEL OSVALDO GARCIA, Applicant ON THE STATE’S PETITION FOR DISCRETIONARY REVIEW FROM THE THIRTEENTH COURT OF APPEALS CAMERON COUNTY H ERVEY, J., delivered the opinion of a unanimous Court. …
Texas Policy Foundation Center for Effective Justice--Open Roads and Overflowing Jails--Addressing High Rates of Rural Pretrial Incarceration, May 2018 OPEN ROADS AND OVERFLOWING JAILS: Addressing High Rates of Rural Pretrial Incarceration by Marc Levin and Michael Haugen May 2018 May 2018 by Marc Levin Michael Haugen Center for Effective Justice …
Texas District Attorney Stops Prosecuting Trace Drug Cases by In 2017, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg changed an office policy by stopping the prosecution of thousands of trace drug cases from the Houston, Texas area. In doing so, Ogg fulfilled promises made during her unsuccessful 2014 campaign and her …
Texas Quietly Authorizes Nation’s First Public Safety Employees Treatment Courts by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke With little opposition from either party, the Texas Legislature passed HB 3391, authorizing the creation of the nation’s first public safety employees treatment courts. The courts will allow police, firefighters, prison and jail guards, …
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals: Furtive Gestures, Brief Visit Not Probable Cause by Dale Chappell by Dale Chappell The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas (“CCA”) held that “furtive gestures” alone did not give police probable cause to search a vehicle under the automobile exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant …
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Holds Defendant Entitled to Self-Defense Jury Charge if There is Any Evidence to Support It by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke On September 27, 2017, the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas held that a judge must issue a jury charge on self-defense in a …
The Texas Criminal Justice Coalition Women's Report Part 2 - An Unsupported Population, 2018 An Unsupported Population: The Treatment of Women in Texas’ Criminal Justice System APRIL 2018 The Texas Criminal Justice Coalition advances solutions that transform the adult and youth justice systems to support families and foster safe communities. …
Texas Supremes: Possession of Gun Does Not Constitute “Use” Under Forfeiture Statute by Dale Chappell by Dale Chappell The Supreme Court of Texas held that a Texas county commissioner’s misdemeanor conviction for possession of a firearm did not constitute “use” of a firearm under the forfeiture statute, and thus forfeiture …
Texas: Retroactive Application of Law That Decriminalized Specific Conduct Not Violation of Separation of Powers by Dale Chappell by Dale Chappell The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas (“CCA”) held that the state legislature does not violate the Separation of Powers Clause of the Texas Constitution when it exercises its power …
Cops Strip Search Woman in Public...Charges Dropped by Matthew Clarke by Matt Clarke On August 4, 2017, prosecutors dropped criminal charges against two Harris County sheriff's deputies who publicly performed a body cavity search on a Black woman on June 20, 2015. This prompted her attorney, Sam Cammaack, to release …
$300,000 Jury Award to Woman Raped by Cop by Christopher Zoukis by Chris Zoukis A woman in Jacksonville, Texas was awarded $300,000 by a jury after suing a city police officer for deprivation of civil rights for raping her and for a later assault. Evelyn Lewis, a house cleaner, was …
Texas Asked Citizens to Fund Rape Kits by Edward Lyon by Edward B. Lyon In August 2011, Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) officials told the legislature about the state's backlog of 20,000 untested rape kits. A law was enacted requiring police agencies to submit newly gathered kits for testing …
Texas Cops Shoot Fleeing, Unarmed Traffic Violators by Mark Wilson by Mark Wilson A Bellaire, Texas woman was nearly killed in the privacy of her own home, by indiscriminate police gunfire. The officers were placed on paid administrative leave as three unarmed women were hospitalized for gunshot wounds. Houston Police …
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals: Right to Appeal Judge’s Questioning Not Forfeited by Failure to Object by Dale Chappell by Dale Chappell The right to appeal a judge’s improper questioning of a witness during trial was not forfeited by the defendant’s failure to object contemporaneously because such an error is …
Houston Police End Use of Error-Prone Drug Field Tests by Matthew Clarke by Matthew Clarke In the summer of 2017, the Houston Police Department announced that it was ending its longstanding practice of using $2 field test kits for drugs that had frequently been used to persuade defendants to plead …
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas: Holds Trial Objection Enough to Preserve Issue for Appeal by Dale Chappell by Dale Chappell When counsel objects at trial to a particular issue—even if it had failed to raise it in a pre-trial written motion—that objection is enough to “preserve” the issue for …
Fifth Circuit Vacates Sex Offender Supervised Release Conditions by Mark Wilson by Mark Wilson The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated several sex offender supervised release conditions, finding that the lower court abused its discretion in imposing the conditions. In 1998, Chanda Huor, 16, pleaded guilty …
Texas Judge Resigns Over Speeding Ticket Quota by For more than 15 years David Viscarde was a volunteer municipal court judge in the small central Texas town of Calvert in Robertson County before he resigned over what he said was pressure by town officials to push speeding tickets through his …
