And so it begins...

Carrying through on his threat/promise to post the names of motorists charged with driving while intoxicated in Montgomery County, DA Brett Ligon's Twitter feed now lists the names of everyone charged with DWI over the weekend.

I find it curious that assistant prosecutor Warren Diepraam says the idea is to embarrass people charged with DWI but that he doesn't think tweeting the names of the accused will poison the jury pool. Well, Warren, if you intend to embarrass someone by tweeting their name then you must anticipate that enough people in Montgomery County will see the feed to have the desired effect. And, if that's the case, then you are attempting to poison the jury pool.

I seem to recall reading about something like this back in high school. That's right -- The Scarlet Letter.

Brett, when one of those cases is dismissed or the jury comes back with an acquittal, are you going to post the name of the prosecutor handling the case or the officer who wrongly arrested the driver? If not, I would encourage my Montgomery County brethren to provide me with the information and I will gladly post it for the world to see.

By the attention Mr. Ligon and his minions are placing on DWI arrests, you would think driving while intoxicated is the most heinous crime in Montgomery County. Let's see, are there any other crimes in which the accused (who is presumed innocent) is humiliated in public, subjected to a forcible blood draw, denied the right to remain silent and is not eligible for deferred adjudication?

See also:

• Bad ideas never die, they just drag on and on (The Defense Rests, 12/26/09)
• Police to put drunk drivers' names on Twitter (C|Net News, 12/26/09)
• Texas county to name drunk drivers on Twitter (IDG News Service, 12/26/09)
• To the top of the page we go (The Defense Rests, 12/19/09)
• Drink. Drive. Tweet. (The Defenses Rests, 12/18/09)