Throwing in the towel (finally)

Now it's over.

Yesterday the lawsuit filed by the former Republican misdemeanor judges was dismissed on a motion filed by the 15 incoming Democratic judges. Judge Darrell Jordan was never a part of the original lawsuit - he was later joined in his opposition by Mike Fields, the former judge in Court 14.

The dismissal of the suit means that Harris County elected officials will stop wasting taxpayer money defending an unconstitutional bail system. The outgoing judges fought tooth and nail to walk back US District Judge Lee Rosenthal's order. They knew that the leverage the courts had over indigent defendants was based on a bail system designed to keep them behind bars.

Under the old rules the county magistrates (who preside over probable cause hearings at the jail) would take out a chart, look up the offense, check for priors and then find the corresponding bail amount. Never once did the magistrate bother to ask if the defendant could afford bail. Not once did the magistrate bother to ask what amount, if any, could the defendant afford. The defendants weren't represented by counsel and had no idea they could ask for a personal bond (not that any of the magistrates would have given anyone such a bond).

This system insured that indigent defendants would jump at the opportunity to dispose of their cases for a guilty plea and time served. Court-appointed counsel were only too willing to go along with this charade of justice - lest they piss off the court that was paying them.

The result was a plea mill. Defendants would be led into the courtroom like a chain gang and would stand in front of the judge. The judge would spend no more than a minute or two on each case and the chain gang would be led back into the holdover.

This system guaranteed convictions for prosecutors, fewer pending cases for the judges and convictions for the defendants.

Those days are now in the past. Defendants who couldn't afford to post bond in the past will now be released on personal bonds and will be able to assist in their defense. They will be able to sleep in their own beds, see their families and go to their jobs.

No longer will a misdemeanor defendant have to make that agonizing decision on whether to fight his case or cop a plea to get out of jail.

A tip of my hat to the new judges who made this happen.

The aftermath

The blue wave hit Harris County (and even our suburban neighbors to the southwest) yesterday. The Democrats swept every county-wide seat, including all of the county civil and criminal benches, the family court benches, the juvenile court benches and every district court bench up for election.

Today should be an interesting day at the courthouse.

Yesterday's results will likely mean an end to the county's lawsuit to fight bail reform. If you'll recall, 14 of the 15 Republican judges were fighting to preserve a system by which poor defendants were coerced into pleading guilty in order to get out of jail. Only Darrell Jordan and Mike Fields, the two African-American judges in the misdemeanor courts, chose the honorable route.

I am sure we will hear quite a bit from a couple of the ousted judges about how much of a revolving door the courts have become since US District Judge Lee Rosenthal issued her ruling. When you hear it, just remember the source.

The judges fighting the lawsuit have cost Harris County over $6 million so far. But, hey, they are all white Republicans and it wasn't their money they were spending.

And, yes, there were some good judges who will be stepping down at the end of the year. But so fucking what? Not one of them was elected because the folks of Harris County thought they were or would be excellent jurists. Not one of them was elected because they presented voters with a vision of how the courts should operate. They took their seats on the bench because they happened to have an R after their name in an election in which the Republican at the top of the ballot won in Harris County.

For every one of these good judges, there was plenty of jetsam and flotsam. As imperfect as our system of selecting judges is in Texas, it certainly beats any of the alternatives. Party affiliations cut down on corruption in the general election because candidates don't have to raise large sums of money (in fact, a judicial candidate doesn't need to spend a dime after winning the primary because he or she will get about the same percentage of the vote as the candidate at the top of the ballot for their party).

I don't think there is anyone who seriously thinks a better system would be to allow the governor to appoint judges who would stand for periodic retention elections.

Good luck to the new judges and may y'all be lamented as good judges done wrong should the pendulum swing back to the right.

To what depths will they plunge?

There were a number of things I was thinking of writing about today, but when I saw this flyer in my mailbox there was no way I couldn't write about it.

Stan Stanart is the Harris County Clerk. He is a very inconsequential man. He is nothing more than a hack with an R after his name who was fortunate enough to run in an off-year election in which white republican voters from the suburbs voted en masse because they had a problem with a black man living in the White House.

The front of this mailer reads "EMERGENCY NOTICE." It is designed to look like an official piece of mail - it even has a generic seal with a lone star to hint at the seal of his office.

My favorite line is that democratic turnout has exceeded that of prior years. Let's be honest, there is no way to know that because no one has counted the votes as of yet. While it's a very good bet that the democratic turnout within the city has been high, there is no way to verify that claim (unless ol' Stan's been peeking at the results).

Mr. Stanart tells the old white ladies that voter protections are in danger if he loses the election. He warns that there could be voter fraud, intimidation and lack of transparency if a democrat wins the race for County Clerk.

Now this is where republican candidates such as Mr. Stanart try to spin reality on its head. The only voter intimidation going on in Harris County right now are photo ID requirements that are reminiscent of the poll tax. For instance, his office insists on denying college students the right to vote with their student IDs but folks can use their concealed handgun license as a form of ID to get a ballot.

The ad is misleading. It is designed to stoke fear. And, most importantly, Mr. Stanart is lying.

That is all.

A short postscript...

After posting yesterday's entry I went out to the mailbox and found yet another stack of mailers from the Republican party for the judicial races. Each of them exhorted folks to vote for the Republican candidates calling them "exceptionally qualified" or "principled conservatives."

No other reason was given for why anyone should vote for them. The mailers encourage folks just to vote Republican straight down the line.

So I really don't want to hear any whining from anyone about good judges being swept out with the bad this time around. You don't get to have it both ways at the ballot box. You don't get to urge folks to vote straight ticket on the one hand and decry partisan elections on the other.

Enough of the hand-wringing

Oh it's that time of the year. The time for those who see a sweep of local elections to do their hand-wringing about the number of good judges who are about to be booted off the bench just because of their political affiliation.

There is a very strong possibility of a Democratic sweep in Harris County due to the power that Houston holds when the masses are riled up for an election. There were near sweeps in 2008 and 2012 when Obama's presence on the ballot cranked the turnout up in the city. The Republicans swept in the off-year elections when the masses found it hard to give a damn.

Now we have an off-year election in which the masses are hyped thanks to Donald Trump and his daily dose of stupidity and hot air. Off-year elections have tended to favor the party out of power and this year should be no exception.

As y'all know, in Texas we hold partisan elections for judges. It's a pretty lousy system if you stop and think about it, but it's better than the alternatives. Come on, people, do y'all really want the governor appointing judges for what would effectively be life terms since retention elections are the surest bet this side of Alabama and the points?

If we switched to non-partisan races as some have suggested (and this time around it's the Republicans hitching their horses to that wagon), corruption would rule the day as the only folks who would care enough to donate to the races would be attorneys practicing in those courts. At least now with party affiliations judicial candidates don't have to run much of a campaign as the results of each of the judicial races will fall pretty much in line with how Harris County goes on the top of the ballot (and this should be the same in every county throughout the state).

Here's my prediction for what's going to happen next week. Some very qualified and professional judges will lose their jobs. Some folks who have no business on the bench will lose their jobs. Some very qualified attorneys will be elected. Some folks who have no business on the bench will be elected. Guess what? That's what happens every election.

I was speaking with a colleague the other day and she was lamenting the fact that some good judges were going to lose and that it would take a couple of years for the new judges to learn the ropes. That may very well be the case, but if you choose a job in which you rely on the public to re-hire you every four years, that's what happens.

But here's the problem I have with her opinion. There were some very well qualified judges who lost their jobs when the Republicans came to power in Harris County. Not one judge on the bench in Harris County is sitting there because the public thought he or she was a great jurist. They are sitting on that bench because they chose the right election to have an R or a D after their name. Some of these folks went on to become very good judges - and some were terrible judges.

I have no sympathy for any judge running as Republican, whether they be an incumbent or not, because they are running under the banner of a party whose leader (and his devotees) promotes racism, bigotry and discrimination. Their leader has no regard for the truth and blatantly lies whenever it suits him. Their leader has referred to Nazis as good people.

And what have the Republican judicial candidates in Harris County said about their party's leader? Absolutely nothing. They either agree with him or they don't have the guts to stand up to what he promotes. Guess what? You don't get to hangout in the GOP tent for the benefits and then escape the consequences.

So I, for one, will not shed any tears come Wednesday morning.

Is this what it means to inhale?

The mailers from the Republican Party are coming hot and heavy as we approach Election Day. The latest broadside warns of chaos in the courthouse should the Democrats sweep the judicial races.

Once again I must address the warning that folks aren't showing up for their court dates. Blaming that on Democratic judges is more than a bit misleading. Let's see, a lawsuit was filed in Harris County challenging the constitutionality of the bond schedule in the misdemeanor courts. The plaintiff's won the lawsuit and the sitting Republican judges appealed.

As part of that lawsuit, the County was ordered to release any defendant in a non-violent misdemeanor case in which that defendant was not taken before a magistrate for a probable cause determination within 48 hours. That magistrate was also tasked with the job of determining the appropriate bond for the defendant based upon the nature of the offense and the defendant's ability to post bond.

If after seeing the magistrate, Pretrial Services determined that the defendant was a good candidate for pretrial release, they were released. Otherwise they sat behind bars until they posted bond.

The procedure in the felony courts has remained largely unchanged since there tend to be more issues regarding the safety of the community and the seriousness of the alleged offense.

And as to concerns about the punishments meted out, I would remind the folks who put out this bullshit that 15 of the 16 judges on the misdemeanor bench are Republicans. Furthermore, the vast majority of cases are resolved through plea bargains in which the only role of the judge is to decide whether or not to accept the deal. In the last 13 years I have had only one plea deal rejected by the judge.

The other issue on the broadside has to do with damages in civil court. Republicans are worried about Democrats sitting on the civil benches and hearing cases involving monetary damages. Their biggest fear is that Democratic judges will determine what is, and what isn't, a frivolous case.

Well, I guess one's level of concern would be strongly correlated to one's view as to what is and isn't a frivolous matter. Being that state legislatures long ago became entangled in the entrenched interests of industry and banks, it has long been the case that the only path one had to redress injury were the courts. When someone says that Democrats would award too much in damages in frivolous suits, what they are really saying is that those judges would hold corporations and powerful business interests accountable for their actions and the damages they cause.

The other thing that most folks don't know is that, quite often, parties settle cases for an amount that differs from the award in order to achieve finality, collect what they can and to avoid the time and cost of the appeals process.

Blowing smoke at the courthouse

Oh, campaign season is all around us. The other day I got a mailer from the Republican Party of Texas promoting Republican judges. I suppose for the ordinary person who hasn't the slightest clue how the criminal (in)justice system works, the mailer might have an effect.

But not really. You see, the results in most judicial races mirrors that of the races at the top of the ballot. There might be a difference of a couple percentage points but, in general, the results are pretty much in line in Harris County.

The mailer tells us that "Republican judges follow the law" and implore folks to "Keep Harris County safe by voting for Republican judges."

Those tag lines are horridly misleading because many judges on the ballot have absolutely nothing to do with criminal law and the average citizen hasn't a clue as to who sits on a civil bench and who sits on a criminal bench.

The mailer states that upwards of 95% of the judges endorsed by police organizations are Republican. I don't doubt that - considering that the Republicans have pretty much owned the county criminal benches for 20 years or more. And many of these judges have track records of being friendly to the state (since too many to count went right from the DA's office to the bench) - they will give the police the benefit of the doubt when it comes to suppression issues.

The mailer also tells us that some criminals have been released from jail (on bond) or have been given probation (through plea bargains made between defense attorneys and prosecutors) and then later committed other crimes.

But, wait a second. Aren't the Republicans supposed to be stingy with the purse strings? Locking up more folks when the jails are already at capacity means building new jails or paying other counties to house folks awaiting trial. How on earth is that being fiscally responsible?

Then, of course, there is this whole matter of the 8th Amendment and the lawsuit challenging the way bonds are set in Harris County. The county has continually lost at every step of the process yet 14 of the 15 Republican judges have continued the fight to defend an unconstitutional system at a cost of several million dollars.

I guess, what the hell, it's not their money so another round of briefs and depositions all around.

So, if you want judges who will continue to spend taxpayer money defending a bad system who use the old bond schedule as a way to coerce pleas from the poor, and if you want judges who are going to spend taxpayer money housing inmates who haven't been convicted of anything, then, yes, by all means, vote for the Republican candidates on the November ballot.

Washington Supreme Court strikes down the death penalty

Allen Eugene Gregory was not a very good person. In 1996 he robbed, raped and murdered a woman. Two years later he was investigated for another rape. During that investigation police discovered evidence that tied Mr. Gregory to the robbery, rape and murder.

Mr. Gregory was convicted of aggravated first degree murder in the 1996 case. The jury sentenced him to death.

He was also convicted of the 1998 rape. The Washington Supreme Court later reversed the rape conviction.

On appeal to the Washington Supreme Court, the death sentence was overturned and the case remanded because the state relied upon the (reversed) rape conviction in the penalty phase of the trial.

In a new punishment hearing, a second jury then sentenced Mr. Gregory to death.

In the meantime, prosecutors learned that their complaining witness in the rape case lied at the first trial. Prosecutors, realizing they couldn't rely on their witness to tell the truth, then dismissed the rape cases.

***

In 1972 in Furman v. Georgia, the US Supreme Court declared the death penalty to be unconstitutional in its application. The Court held that states had imposed the death penalty in "arbitrary and capricious manner."

Three years later a ballot initiative in Washington passed making the death penalty mandatory for specified offenses. The following year, in Woodson v. North Carolina, the US Supreme Court held that mandatory death sentences were also unconstitutional.

Washington then passed a statute that called for a sentencing hearing where evidence of aggravating factors, as well as mitigating factors, would be presented to a jury. If the jury found an aggravating circumstance and deemed the mitigating factor insufficient to warrant mercy, a death sentence could be imposed.

The Washington Supreme Court struck down that statute because it allowed the state to impose the death penalty on a defendant who demanded his constitutional right to a trial, but it did not impose it on defendants who pleaded guilty.

The death penalty statute was then rewritten to require automatic review (a proportionality review) of death sentences by the state Supreme Court to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to uphold the death sentence, whether the death sentence was disproportionate to the penalty assessed in similar cases, whether passion or prejudice contributed to the death sentence and whether the defendant had an intellectual disability.

***

Mr. Gregory appealed his death sentence, arguing that it was disproportionate to other sentences meted out for similar crimes and that is was applied in an arbitrary manner in his case because he was black.

In 2014, Katherine Beckett co-authored a report that found there was a wide disparity among counties when it came to imposing the death penalty and that a portion of that disparity had to do with the black population in the county. She also pointed out that a black defendant was four-and-a-half times more likely to receive a death sentence than a white defendant.

Like many states, Washington's state constitution has a provision outlawing cruel and unusual punishment. And, like in many states, the protections granted under that clause are stronger than the protections afforded under the 8th Amendment to the US Constitution.

And it was that clause that the Washington Supreme Court relied upon in striking down the Washington death penalty statute for the fourth time.

***

In 2000 about 50.3% of the population in Texas was white. Latinos made up about 34.2% and Blacks made up 12%.

Since 1976, 34.5% of the inmates murdered at the hands of the state were Black while 55.6% where white and 8.2% were Latino. Over the years, 75.6% of the victims in death penalty cases were white while only 15.3% were Black  and 6.9% were Latino.

For a long time Harris County was known as the death penalty capital of the United States - sending more people to death row each year than many countries. In the 2000 census, whites made up 56.5% of the county's population while Blacks made up 18.9% and Latinos 32.9%.

It is clear from the numbers alone that the death penalty is applied disproportionately based on race. I don't have the knowledge of statistics to run regression analysis to determine how much weight is placed on race in death penalty decisions, but when Black inmates are executed at a rate three times higher than their proportion of the general population, something is wrong.

Capital punishment is little more than modern day lynching with the imprimatur of the court. The fact that those on the right favor it with such fervor tells you that whites are overwhelmingly in favor of killing inmates (the fact that preachers and so-called religious conservatives support it tells you that they are nothing more than fucking hypocrites). The death penalty is a tool of oppression and social control.

The death penalty is applied in an arbitrary and capricious manner and nothing can change that. It is high time we moved beyond barbarism.

When all else fails, purge the voter rolls

One thing about the Trump era is that Republicans don't have to even pretend they aren't racial motives behind more restrictive voting laws and procedures.

The latest example is in southern Georgia. Randolph County is 61% black - double the statewide average. The Randolph County Board of Supervisors voted last week to close down 75% of the polling stations in Randolph County.

The Board will argue that they are making the move for financial reasons but that excuse doesn't hold any water because the real effect is to close as many polling stations in the black sections of the county as possible in order to aid Republican office seekers. If it costs more than the county wishes to pay to keep the stations open there is a perfectly fair solution -- raise the filing fee for running for office.

With the US Supreme Court's gutting of the Voting Rights Act, white Republicans have been knocking each other down to see who can pass the more restrictive voting laws and who can make it more difficult for the poor and minorities to vote. And the reason is clear -- as I've pointed out before, the old white power structure knows that due to demographic changes, its days of holding power are limited and they are doing everything they can to prolong the inevitable.

As white America showed that it is not afraid to vote for an outwardly racist candidate for president, these moves are to be expected. Those who vote Republican are supporting these efforts whether they wish to admit it or not. It would appear that no Republican candidate running for office has the guts to challenge the overt bigotry of Donald Trump and his administration. Their silence is affirmation of their support.

And, lest you think these shenanigans are used only in the Deep South, it's going on in Houston, too.  Residents of the Third Ward, a mostly black area of Houston just east of downtown, received letters from the County's voter registrar, Ann Harris Bennett, informing them that they had but 30 days to return a letter confirming their address to her office in order to avoid being removed from the voter rolls. The letters were sent out to folks who hadn't moved and who had been living at their current address for years.

“If you do not respond at all to this notice, your registration will be canceled if you have not confirmed your address either by completing the response form or confirming your address when voting before November 30 following the second general election for state and county officers that occurs after the date the confirmation notice is mailed.”

The letters were the result of challenges made by Republicans to voters in predominately minority parts of Houston. You see, Republican candidates will win the majority of votes in the suburbs since most of the residents moved away from Houston to get away from darker skinned folks. But elections in Harris County center on the turnout within the city limits of Houston. If there is a large turnout in the city, it will cancel out the Republican voters in the suburbs. And Republicans are anticipating that will be the case come November.

Houston's white elephant

One of the casualties of Hurricane Harvey was the Harris County Criminal Justice Center - a 20-story white elephant that has had a laundry list of problems since it opened less than 20 years ago.

Now comes word that it is going to cost some $86 million to repair and upgrade the building before it can be re-opened to the public. But, as a colleague pointed out this morning on Twitter, no bids have gone out for the repair work and the idea that the jobs can be bid out and completed in less than 2 years seems a little bit absurd.

The design of the building and the placement of offices and courtrooms never made much sense to anyone who has spent any amount of time inside the courthouse. The building has long been plagued with long lines at security and at the elevators as well as maintenance issues with those same elevators. Stairwells - necessary in case the building needed to be evacuated - were located behind closed doors and out of reach for anyone other than court staff or attorneys.

And while I understand that it is cheaper to build upward in Houston rather than outward, the basic design of a skyscraper and the functionality of a courthouse aren't congruent.

But these concerns are ignored because there is no viable constituency for a new courthouse. The taxpayers don't want to spend any additional money building a new courthouse for the benefit of criminal defendants. Unless they find themselves inside the building, they have no clue how useless it is.

So now for at least the next year-and-a-half (and likely a lot longer), misdemeanor courts will continue to be doubled up in the decrepit old Family Law Center while defendants who can't post bond will sit and wait for even longer in the county jail for their day in court. And that day will only get bumped back further and further when you consider that there is one trial court for every four misdemeanor courts. You do the math. Attorneys and defendants will continue to have to depend on two elevators to service 7 floors and 17 courts.

The felony courts will continue their uneasy alliance with the family courts in the Civil Courthouse where the elevators are proving to be as inadequate as those in the old criminal courthouse.

Attorneys and defendants will continue having to deal with split dockets in multiple courthouses and the inherent delays.

And good luck figuring out where the hell the district clerks or prosecutors are since they are spread over multiple office buildings throughout the city.

This is the living embodiment of insanity -- doing the same thing over and over again thinking it will somehow come out different this one time.

See also:

"Proposal for problem-plagued criminal justice center: Start Over," Chris Tritico, Houston Chronicle (10/16/17)

Harris County Chief Public Defender under fire

Alex Brunin is the Chief Public Defender for Harris County. His clientele consists of those who haven't the money to hire an attorney to defend themselves in criminal court.

He is now being accused by Steve Radack, a Harris County Commissioner, of leaking confidential records to attorneys fighting the county on the way bonds are set for defendants. Prior to Federal District Judge Lee Rosenthal's finding that both the misdemeanor and felony bond schedules were unconstitutional as they did not take into account a defendant's ability to pay, a magistrate would ask the prosecutor what the defendant was charged with, whether there were any enhancements and whether the defendant had a prior record. Based on the answers to the those questions, the magistrate traced his or her finger on a chart and set the defendant's bond.

The result was that almost three-quarters of the people held in the Harris County Jail on any given day hadn't been convicted and were awaiting resolution of their cases. That is a mind-blowing number. And totally fucked up.

As head of the Public Defender's Office, Alex Bunin finds himself caught between a rock and a hard place. The office is funded by a grant. And, as I know I've written before, once that grant money starts to run out the case loads for everyone in the office will rise as will the pressure to plead out defendants. Mr. Bunin knows he will get no favors from Commissioner's Court. He's a thorn in the side of those who want to return to the days of the plea mill.

His position depends upon the whims of politicians from outside the Houston city limits - in other words, politicians who represent wealthy white suburbanites who want nothing to do with guaranteeing the constitutional rights of those accused of crime. Mr. Bunin has little or no political capital as indigent defendants don't have a voice in Harris County politics.

Make no mistake about it, this isn't about whether or not Mr. Bunin passed on information, confidential or otherwise, to attorneys fighting about the Harris County bond schedule, this is about a man who is doing his best to give voice to those who don't have one. That, in a nutshell, is Alex Bunin's sin. He dared to provide a vigorous defense for those who had nothing.

Thus far Harris County has spent in the neighborhood of $6 million fighting to preserve a bail system that a conservative federal judge and the most conservative appellate court have found to be unconstitutional. And yet the county continues to fight to preserve a system that led to coerced mass pleas.

Two judges, Mike Fields and Darrell Jordan, have urged the county to drop the fight and to work on finding a solution. Thus far their words have fallen on deaf ears.

But now Mr. Radack has a scapegoat. Instead of defending the money spent on defending the indefensible, he can hold Alex Bunin up to the conservative mates and blame him for the lawsuit and the changes to the bail system. But there's even more to it.

If Mr. Radack and his cabal can get rid of Alex Bunin they can replace him with someone who isn't as committed to defending the indigent. He can install someone who is more interested in the appearance of "fairness" than in actual reform. He can install someone who will be more than happy to carry his water bucket, increase case loads and pressure his staff to plead more cases out.

After a testy meeting yesterday, Mr. Bunin wasn't fired, but the matter was referred to the county public defender board for further recommendation. As was to be expected, the county commissioners who represented mostly white suburbanites were most critical of Mr. Bunin's actions.

And that's what this is ultimately all about -- a return to the days when court-appointed attorneys were more than happy to team up with the judge and prosecutor to work cases out without much effort or cost.

Captains (not so) courageous

Let me just say it now, politicians, by and large, are not the most courageous folks out there. In fact they are pretty downright cowardly because they are too scared of pissing off small groups of voters.

It's only once a politician decides (or, as you will see later, has it decided for them) to leave public office that they regain the ability to speak what they believe. We've seen it with Republican congressmen who wouldn't criticize Donald Trump until after they announced their retirement from office.

In Harris County right wing political organizations in the northwestern part of the county seem to rule the roost when it comes to primary elections. These groups publish "slates" of candidates for their wingnut readers to vote for. Most of these groups put their endorsement for sale to the highest bidder. Others "sell" their endorsement to the candidate that toes their line.

These newsletter endorsements are important for any budding Republican officeholder in Harris County since very few folks in the electorate have the slightest idea who any of the judicial candidates are - and most don't care so long as they have an R after their name on the ballot.

Jay Karahan has been the judge of Harris County Criminal Court at Law No. 8 since 2003. As a result of this month's primary election, he will no longer be a judge come January 1. Over the past 16 years he has been involved in primary and general electoral politics in Harris County. He knows how the game is played. And not once in the past 16 years has he stood up and complained about the way the Republicans decide who will represent them in the general election.

At least not until now.

In his guest column in Big Jolly Times (a local wingnut blog), Judge Karahan goes off on the backroom politics that determine who gets endorsed and who doesn't. He states in his piece that he wrote it long before he lost his primary election, but it never saw the light of day until after the smoke had cleared.

There is much merit in what he has to say and there is much to criticize about kingmakers who demand that judicial candidates kowtow to their right wing views instead of following the law. But why are we only seeing this after Judge Karahan has been retired by the wealthy whites up in the northwestern suburbs of Houston?

The outrage he feels is real, but it comes across as sour grapes after a defeat.

And now we have the story going around that Gov. Greg Abbott was opposed to the bathroom bill that wingut Republicans were pushing during the last legislative session. Funny how the guv'nor never came out and said he was against the bill. You see, that would have taken courage. That would have required going against the wingnuts and Teabaggers who dominate the Republican party in Texas. So Gov. Abbott apparently decided to keep it on the down low. But then, how would he explain placing the bill on the agenda for the special legislative session that summer. Something just isn't adding up.

If you want to be an agent for change, you have to be willing to stand up and be castigated for what you say. You have to be willing to go down in flames at the polls if that's the price to be paid for being true to yourself. Colin Kaepernick made a decision to protest against police violence and brutality. That decision cost him his career.

His decision to take that knee was courageous. Exposing the dirty underbelly of local politics after losing an election isn't.

Constructing the plea mill

Documents obtained by the Houston Chronicle cast new light on the ways Harris County judges systematically refused to grant personal bonds to defendants for years. Many district judges instructed magistrates not to grant personal bonds to any defendant - regardless of the offense and the ability of the defendant to post bond. This is Step One in created a plea mill.

Today, after US District Judge Lee Rosenthal declared Harris County's misdemeanor bond schedule to be unconstitutional, three-quarters of the county's 8,700 inmates are in jail awaiting trial. Think about that for a second. There are more than 6,000 people behind bars who haven't been convicted of anything.

This process came to light when three Harris County magistrates, Eric Hagsteette, Jill Wallace and Joseph Licata III, during disciplinary hearings before the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. The complaints were filed by State Sen. John Whitmire (D-Houston). During the hearings the magistrates told commissioners that they were instructed by judges not to grant PR bonds.

The following district court (felony) judges instructed magistrates not to grant PR bonds on cases assigned to their courts:

• Devon Anderson, former district judge and DA, 2006-2007
• Mike Anderson, former district judge and DA, 2006-2009
• Jeannine Barr, 182nd District Court, 2006-2017
• Denise Bradley, 262nd District Court, 2012-2017
• Marc Brown, former district judge and current Justice on the 14th Court of Appeals, 2012
• Susan Brown, 185th District Court, 2006-2012
• Katherine Cabaniss, 248th District Court, 2014-2017
• Joan Campbell, former district judge, 2006-2012
• Marc Carter, 228th District Court, 2006-2014
• Caprice Cosper, former district judge, 2006-2007
• Denise Collins, 208th District Court, 2006-2012
• Mark Kent Ellis, former district judge, 2006-2017
• Catherine Evans, 180th District Court, 2014-2017
• George Godwin, former district judge, 2006-2007
• William Harwin, former district judge, current county court judge, 2006
• Belinda Hill, former district judge, 2006-2012
• Joan Huffman, former district judge and current state senator, 1999-2005
• Hazel Jones, 338th District Court, 2009 and 2012
• Jan Krocker, 184th District Court, 2006
• Renee Magee, former district judge, 2014
• Michael McSpadden, 209th District Court, 2006-2017
• Ryan Patrick, former district judge and current US Attorney, 2012 and 2014
• George Powell, 351st District Court, 2017
• Brian Rains, former district judge, 2006-2007
• Herb Ritchie, 337th District Court, 2009-2012
• Debbie Mantooth Stricklin, former district judge, 2006-2009
• Don Stricklin, former district judge, 2006-2007
• Brock Thomas, former district judge, 2006-2007 and 2014
• Vanessa Velasquez, 183rd District Court, 2006-2007
• Jim Wallace, 263rd District Court, 2006-2017
• Michael Wilkinson, former district judge, 2006-2007

Each of these judges systematically deprived defendants of bond. Yes, in some cases, individual decisions to deny PR bonds - or bond in general - was correct given the nature of the allegation and the criminal history of the defendant. But, making it a blanket policy to deny PR bonds without taking into account the individual circumstances of each defendant is wrong - and it is a systematic denial of justice.

"The young black men - and it's primarily young black men rather than young black women - charged with felony offenses, they're not getting good advice from their parents. Who do they get advice from? Rag-tag organizations like Black Lives Matter, which tell you, 'Resist police,' which is the worst thing in the world you can tell a young black man... They teach contempt for the police, for the whole justice system."

-- Judge Michael McSpadden, 209th District Court

Judge McSpadden even made a point of defending his position by blaming movements like Black Lives Matter for the problem. He hits all of the dog whistle talking points in his statement without taking into account the institutional racism found in law enforcement, police brutality and violence against unarmed black and brown men or the capricious nature in which bond decisions are made in Harris County.

No, Judge McSpadden, the contempt people of color feel for the criminal (in)justice system has more to do with the acts of those in charge of the system and the systemic racism inherent in the way our courts operate. Denying PR bonds to defendants because of the color of their skin or without regard to their ability to post bond breeds contempt for the system.

It's a swing and a miss

And it's strike two against Harris County in their efforts to maintain an unconstitutional and discriminatory bail policy in place.

Last June, US District Judge Lee Rosenthal ordered Harris County to change the way in which those arrested for non-violent misdemeanors are treated. Out went the bond schedule that failed to take into account the individual financial circumstances of the accused. In came a system in which folks who couldn't afford bail were released on personal bonds and pretrial release.

Fourteen of the county misdemeanor judges joined together to challenge Judge Rosenthal's order. As noted here, Judge Mike Fields removed himself from the rest of the Republican judges recently.

Now the Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals has issued its ruling and it affirmed Judge Rosenthal's order. This should be the death blow to the county's attempt to reinstitute the plea mill as no one would ever come to the conclusion that the Fifth Circuit Court is anything other than conservative at heart.

While the Court stopped short of saying that everyone charged with a misdemeanor has the right to pre-trial release, Harris County is required to conduct an individual assessment of each detainee.

The stance of the judges fighting to overturn Judge Rosenthal's order should come as quite jarring when compared to their tame campaign promises to see that justice is done.  The justice these judges have in mind is coercing defendants who can't afford to post bond to plead guilty to criminal acts without having the opportunity to investigate the facts and to hold the state to its burden of proof.

Now the leverage the judges and prosecutors had over many defendants is gone. And that's a very good thing, no matter what the Republican judges tell you between now and November.

Robb Fickman is mad as hell...

For those of you who aren't aware, the Harris County Criminal Courthouse suffered severe damage as a result of Hurricane Harvey. The building received some water on the ground floor and basement. But the bulk of the damage was caused when chilled water pipes burst when the building lost power. Oh, that and the backed up sewer lines (you can't make this stuff up).

The building has been flawed since the day it opened. During Tropical Storm Allison the basement was flooded and took out all the computers and electronics. Who would have thought that the basement of a building built on the shores of Buffalo Bayou would have flooding issues?

I know real estate is expensive in downtown Houston, but a 20 story criminal courthouse doesn't make any sense - especially when most courts call docket at the same time. The elevators were a mess. Security lines often stretched outside the building as the sensitivity of the metal detectors was cranked up.

When the courthouse was closed after Harvey there were calls for it to be torn down and rebuilt. There were calls by others to turn it into a county office building and to build a new courthouse nearby.

Those ideas were all rejected by the Harris County Commissioner's Court (don't ask - it's the county equivalent of a city counsel) who proclaimed the county didn't have the money to do the right thing. The decision was made to shutter the building for a year (now it's looking like two) to remove the mold and fix the damage.

Now the misdemeanor courts are doubled up in the undersized (and severely outdated) Family Law Center while the felony courts are in an uneasy room sharing arrangement with the civil courts in the Civil Courthouse. Meanwhile defendants' lives are made harder by the staggered dockets and lines to get into the courthouses.

But, lo and behold, when it came time to authorize an expenditure of $105 million to renovate the Astrodome into a convention space, there was money!

Now, don't get me wrong. I love the Dome. I grew up attending baseball, football and soccer matches there. I've been to the rodeo, the supercross and I even watched the first Hearns-Leonard fight there with my dad. The coolest thing, though, was the old Houston Press Dome Run - the race finished on the 50 yard line.

But the building has been closed for almost ten years. It sits abandoned next door to the generic NRG (or whoever the sponsor is today) Stadium as a reminder of the greed of Bud Adams and the other owners of professional sports franchises.

I will leave you with Robb's own words:

I hope the Defense Bar, The DAO and the Judiciary vocally express their outrage at this public stupidity and slap in the face. 

Commissioners Court has shown that they do not care about the extreme hardships created for everyone involved in the criminal justice system. Maybe it’s time Commissioners Court heard more vocal uproar from those they were hired to serve.

Doing the right thing

Well here's an interesting twist in Harris County's fight against bail reform - Michael Fields, the presiding judge in County Criminal Court at Law No. 14 has withdrawn himself from the appeal. He joins Darrell Jordan, presiding judge in County Criminal Court at Law No. 16, on the sidelines.

According to Judge Fields, his view of the case changed after attending a hearing at the Federal Courthouse this past Tuesday where he had a front row view of the high powered legal team the county criminal judges hired to fight US District Judge Lee Rosenthal's ruling that the Harris County bail system was unconstitutional.

Fields initially opposed the lawsuit, and summed up his initial position as: "This is the way we've always done it. It has to be working OK. What are we doing wrong? We're not bad people."

Thus far Harris County has spent some $5 million defending a system of bail that led to an overcrowded jail and defendants pleading guilty just to get out of jail. Many of those cases were plead out, with the help of court-appointed attorneys, without so much as a cursory investigation of the facts. The only issue in most cases was whether the defendant would get out on time served or have to spend a few more nights in jail.

For those of y'all who plan on voting in the Republican primary, keep in mind that every incumbent (with the exception of Judge Fields) has spent taxpayer money to defend a system that denied any semblance of justice to the accused. The judges are upset because non-violent defendants are being released which makes it a hell of a lot easier to fight a case.

The system under which we labored for so long used a predetermined bail schedule to determine how much a person would have to post to get out of jail. That system didn't take into account a defendant's financial circumstances or factors that would determine the likelihood of his appearing in court. Bail was used as a punitive measure that punished the most vulnerable defendants.

The fact that the judges are fighting back against Judge Rosenthal's order should tell you everything you need to know about their attitude towards the citizen accused. These are judges who are more interested in moving their dockets than they are about justice. And they are using our money to fight for a system that was declared unconstitutional. Just think about that for a second.

Judge Fields and I have butted heads in the past - and I'm sure that if he remains on the bench we will butt heads again at some point in the future - but I'm going to commend him for his decision in this matter. It takes courage to stand up and admit that you were wrong, but that's exactly what Judge Fields has done.

Thank you, Judge, for doing the right thing.

Is Harris County deliberately undermining a federal court order?

This past June an order from US District Judge Lee Rosenthal went into effect that drastically altered the way pretrial bonds are handled in Harris County.

In the past if a defendant charged with a misdemeanor couldn't afford to post bond or his family couldn't afford to hire a bondsman, that defendant sat in jail until his case was resolved. This put pressure on defendants to plead their cases even if there was no evidence or even if they were innocent, just to get out of jail.

Judges and prosecutors loved it. It cleared dockets. It meant fewer trials.

In light of Judge Rosenthal's ruling, defendants charged with nonviolent misdemeanors who can't afford to post bond are to be released on personal bonds - that is, on their promise to return to court on a certain date.

Many of these folks were placed on pretrial supervision in which caseworkers do what they can to ensure they return to court when scheduled.

But, according to this article in the Houston Chronicle, many of those who need supervision don't receive it and, subsequently, don't show up for their court dates.

Judges are up in arms because of the number of warrants they have to issue for defendants who miss court. County officials blame Judge Rosenthal for the problem.

Keep in mind that for decades in Harris County the jail was filled to capacity primarily with detainees who hadn't been convicted of anything. The county also fought, tooth and nail, to defend its system that denied the accused their due process rights by confining them absent a showing of guilt and absent a showing that they were a danger to society.

And, in what is most likely a deliberate attempt to undermine Judge Rosenthal's order, Harris County does not place those who most need supervision on pretrial supervision. This policy of neglect almost guarantees that folks are going to fall between the cracks. I suspect the county hopes that this policy will allow them to go back to the old system when they present "evidence" that the public was placed at risk by nonviolent misdemeanor defendants who failed to appear in court.

The judges want to return to the old system so they can move cases off their dockets. Everyone involved in the criminal (in)justice system knows that it's much easier to fight your case when you aren't behind bars. But having folks exercise their constitutional right to a jury trial gums up the works down at the courthouse - especially after Hurricane Harvey.

I know that judicial efficiency is a big deal for those wearing the black robes, but it doesn't - and shouldn't - trump the due process rights of citizens accused of breaking the law.

Stepping in it

Oh what a mess Harris County DA Devon Anderson has found herself in. As has been reported in local media outlets, over the last nine years some 21,000 pieces of evidence were destroyed in Harris County Precinct 4. All of the evidence was supposedly destroyed by one deputy - Christopher Hess - who has since been fired.

But somehow none of it came to light until local defense attorneys Emily DeToto and Paul Morgan found out when one of their clients was being offered a 25 year sentence on a dope case last month.

Strangely enough, Ms. Anderson announced at a press conference that her office had been aware of the destroyed evidence since February but chose not to say a word about it - all the while offering lengthy prison sentences in a cases in which there was no evidence.

Of course Constable Mark Herman claims that the entire problem has been resolved and that everything in Precinct 4 is now hunky-dory (which would be a first). If the story needs any more spicing up, the former constable, Ron Hickman, was appointed Sheriff following the resignation of Adrian Garcia.

But aside from the stinking mess that is (and has been) Precinct 4, why didn't Ms. Anderson's office inform defense attorneys about the problem when she found out about it? The requirements of Brady would seem to scream out that her office should have notified any defense attorney representing a client who was arrested in Precinct 4, that there was a problem with evidence storage. Her underlings damn sure shouldn't have been offering plea deals to defendants when they knew there was no evidence to back up the case.

Apparently we can require prosecutors to attend all the ethics classes we want and it won't change the culture of the office. Ms. Anderson wants us all to believe that all is well with the world and that her office is seeing that justice is done. Really?

There is no justification for Ms. Anderson's actions (or lack thereof). There is no excuse for sitting on this matter for six months. If Ms. DeToto and Mr. Morgan hadn't found out when they did, when would we have found out? And what other nasty little scandals are lurking in the nooks and crannies of the 6th Floor of the Harris County Criminal (In)Justice Center?

If Ms. Anderson can't be trusted to notify the defense bar of the wholesale destruction of evidence, how can we trust her office to investigate the matter? If we really want to find out what happened, who did it and how long it went on, then we need to have an outside agency do the investigating.

Ms. Anderson and her minions have shown they cannot be trusted.

Window dressing

Back in April of this year Harris County received a $2 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation to reform its criminal (in)justice system. According to county officials, the immediate goals were to reduce the population of the Harris County Jail (the state's largest mental health facility) by 20% over the next three years. There was talk of more personal bonds and diversion programs. There have also been a multitude of committees set up to discuss ways to make this happen.

It's all a mirage, however.

Currently 48% of the inmates at the Harris County Jail are black while African-Americans make up only about 19% of the population in Harris County. Those numbers alone tell you a lot about they manner in which "justice" is meted out in Harris County. Throw in the fact that almost 70% of the inmates haven't been convicted of a crime and you get a better picture of the way things work down here.

Our system of mass incarceration has nothing at all to do with reducing crime. It's all about social control. We arrest and lock up folks for drug use instead of providing treatment. Judges set bonds at rates that folks can't pay and so they sit at the jail and wait for their court appearance where an appointed attorney will work out a deal with the prosecutor for them to get out of jail - with a permanent conviction on their record.

So long as the government continues to carry out its mission of marginalizing minorities and the surplus labor pool, ain't nothing going to change on that front.

What does the county propose? Form a committee, and several sub-committees, and hold a series of meetings about making the criminal (in)justice system more efficient. Efficient for whom? Certainly not for those accused of violating the law. Certainly not about decriminalizing drugs or making low-level drug offenses a ticketable Class C offense.

Nope. What the county wants to devise is a system in which cases move quicker through the courts, reducing the courts' dockets and increasing the number of pleas. The diversions Devon Anderson (Harris County DA) talks about are just another way of placing folks under the thumb of the criminal (in)justice system.

Specialty courts such as drug courts, DWI courts, mental health courts, veteran's courts (and whatever flavor of the month court is next up on the list) are little more than an illusion. If we were rally interested in helping these folks out we wouldn't be prosecuting them and holding the threat of jail or prison time over their heads. If we really wanted to help them they would receive the treatment they need without the coercive power of the state standing behind the curtain.

If the county were serious about reducing the number of folks sitting on their hands in the Harris County Jail awaiting the disposition of their cases, we would issue personal bonds for everyone charged with a non-violent misdemeanor or any drug possession offense. If we were serious we would eliminate a bond schedule that serves only to enrich bondsmen and coerce pleas.

If we were serious about this we would stop law enforcement agencies from acting as occupation forces in minority communities and enforcing the law in a disproportionate manner. And we would certainly stop arresting and jailing folks for status crimes. Taking an addict to jail instead of providing treatment does nobody any good. Let's treat drug addiction for what it is - a public health issue (just look what Congress did when it turned out a lot of white folks were being arrested due to opioid addiction).

But this is not what's going to be done. Instead our county officials (and their lackeys and stooges) will stand up on a stage and announce proudly that they've re-arranged the deck chairs on the Titanic.

After all, it's a lot easier to dress up a window than it is to fix a problem.

Happy Fourth (or not)

Yesterday the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association carried on a tradition born four years ago with the annual reading of the Declaration of Independence outside the Harris County Criminal (In)justice Center.

At the same time as the reading in Houston, there were readings at 73 other courthouses in Texas.

The reading is a powerful reminder of what the Fourth of July is all about and why we do what we do. It's an event that pulls us together and gives us a little kick in the ass to motivate us. It's also a stark reminder of how different things were 239 years ago.

Of course I would be remiss if I didn't point out that it was a roomful of wealthy, white landowners who signed the document and their promises of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness didn't apply to women, the poor or those held in bondage.

A special shout out goes to John Raley who worked for years - for free - to obtain the release of Michael Morton. There is no higher reward in this profession than seeing an innocent man walk out of prison.

HCCLA President Carmen Roe opens the ceremony.

Robb Fickman delivers the keynote address.

But it's not all fun and games for down here in Houston we are in the midst of (yet) another No Refusal Weekend. The other day Mayor Annise Parker and the police got in front of the media and explained why we just need to pretend that the Fourth Amendment doesn't exist on Fourth of July weekend.

The anecdotes are horrific. There is nothing amusing or fun about folks dying in a car accident because someone was intoxicated. But there is also nothing to celebrate about making a mockery of what this holiday is all about. The Founding Fathers put their lives on the line by signing a document that laid out the abuses committed by the British government. Our own elected officials pat themselves on the back for conspiring to violate the Bill of Rights.

An interesting side note to all of this was former Harris County prosecutor (and current Montgomery County prosecutor) Warren Diepraam's appearing on KUHF's Houston Matters yesterday in which he told the radio audience that there was nothing wrong with having a drink or two with dinner and then getting in the car and driving home. I would like to hear Mr. Diepraam square that statement with the fact that once an officer smells alcohol on a driver's breath - and once that driver admits to having had a "couple" of drinks - that the investigation is over and someone's going to jail.

The other day while I was watching the US play Belgium (and apparently forget that the object of the game is to score a goal), I met a police officer from New Zealand who was here on vacation. He was amazed at how different the rules under which the police operate are. In New Zealand, for instance, an officer can pull any motorist over at any time to test them to see if they are legally intoxicated. No reasonable suspicion, no probable cause. No nothing. Get in your car to leave the bar and you just might be the unlucky soul who gets picked to be tested.

That's not a system under which I wish to live. But that's where we are headed with drunk driving laws. When we demonize one crime, we make it that much easier to take away the rights of folks accused of other crimes. Is that how we want to celebrate Independence Day?