Wednesday, April 29, 2009

While I'm out ...

Just a few odds and ends before I head out the door for the day:

Dallas DNA
I wanted to watch and review the new TV show Dallas DNA, which premiered last night, but apparently we don't get the Investigation Discovery channel in Austin. It's focused on the efforts of the Dallas District Attorney's Conviction Integrity Unit and appears to feature quite a few people I've personally gotten to meet over the last year working for the Innocence Project of Texas. Here's an AP report about the series and the debut of its first episode last night.

Exoneree reentry struggles
The Dallas News Crime Blog brings word of a conference for exonerees on Friday in Dallas to help them deal with their reentry struggles.

Will expanded DNA database contribute to crime solving backlog?
According to an ACLU of Texas fact sheet (pdf) about Sen. Dan Patrick's SB 727 (discussed on Grits here), a bill which would vastly expand Texas' offender-DNA database to include probationers and juveniles, "A recent report on the expansion of California’s DNA databank shows that expanding the database to all felons resulted in delays of six months or more in analyzing rape kits. In one case, a rapist attacked two more victims, including a child, while his DNA sat on a shelf awaiting analysis." The bill "will cost over $4 million in State Highway 6 funds for the Department of Public Safety to process the DNA" and require new fees from probationers.

Immigrant hunger strikers demanding right to bail
Democracy Now! has a feature on 100 hunger striking prisoners at a federal immigration detention center in Port Isabel, TX. A spokesman for the hunger strikers said they're demanding the federal government recognize their constitutional right to a reasonable bail while their civil court proceedings progress. The also interview Bob Libal of Grassrooots Leadership who blogs over at Texas Prison Bidness. Here's the video (the Port Isabel story is first up):


11 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is funny because all of my friends watched "Dallas DNA" in Austin. It is "ID" channel. It is on several more times this week. Then a new episode next Tues at 9 pm. Investigation Discovery but it is "ID" on the guide.

Gritsforbreakfast said...

What cable channel, do you remember?

Anonymous said...

I say release them all now! Enough! Get them away from evil America now and give them justice by taking them back to the safety of their homelands where They they can get ample servings of justice, food and prosperity. America you are bad, bad...apologize to the rest of the world now for all of the wicked, inhumane, murderous, acts you have bestowed on the rest of the world's innocent people!

Anonymous said...

"...their right to a reasonable bail while their civil court proceedings progress."

Bail so they can run and hide. Do one in a hundred show up for the proceeding after they are allowed to run?

Rage Judicata said...

6:39:

Not a fan of the Constitution?

You must be a Republican.

Anonymous said...

Constution? This whole thing is a sham and you know it. You say, "Let's pretend that they will show up, but we know they won't. If anyone admits they see through this we'll just say, "you're not a friend of the constitution! That'll shut them up!"

Why pretend it's anything but the transparent sham it is?

Anonymous said...

TW Austin channel 250. You can also check with your digital provider's website.

Gritsforbreakfast said...

Cool! I didn't know we had a channel 250! We clicked through all the usual suspects and didn't find it. Thanks.

I Prefer the Term "Ironic" said...

Here's a clip of Watkins and Johnnie Lindsey on The View this morning:

http://abc.go.com/player/index?pn=index&show=167365&season=167364&episode=202510&timestamp=1824

Anonymous said...

I think that there is some legal precedent for holding people without bond whom are proven to be flight risks.

Unfortunately illegal immigrants often enter and stay in this country through trespass, deception, false documents and stolen American identities. A great majority of these people unfortunately cannot be trusted to return to court after being let out with bail.

I do however wish that they would hold asylum seekers without a previous criminal record in non-criminal facilities.

I very much doubt however that the courts up to the supreme court will not allow these people to go free in this country.

Immigrating to a country without that country's authorization is a criminal act in every nation in the world.

We have to understand that non-citizens do have rights, but staying in this country is a PRIVILEDGE not a right for foreign citizens.

number 9 said...

"Not a fan of the Constitution? You must be a Republican."

You are a complete idiot. Obviously, they let anyone with a computer post drivel like this. Perhaps there should be some minimal IQ test in order to be allowed Internet access (No, I'm not a Republican, but yes, you are an idiot).

Perhaps you could instead consider posting something useful and relevant. Here is my meager contribution:

"Delinquency is the norm, not the exception, in the Harlingen branch of U.S. Immigration Court. According to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, a division of the Department of Justice, which oversees the nation's immigration courts, 88 percent of the 10,401 people scheduled to appear before the court in 2004 failed to do so.

That appearance rate is the lowest of any immigration court in the nation. And to put that ranking in context, the second worst is a small secondary immigration court in New York City that maintains a 48-percent failure-to-appear rate. Of course, it only handles 1,285 cases a year; Harlingen is the sixth-largest immigration court in the country and handles eight times that caseload."


http://tinyurl.com/d37qkq