- State Sen. Rodney Ellis has a column in the Dallas News announcing he plans to introduce legislation next spring to improve eyewitness ID procedures and require videotaping custodial interrogations.
- At Women in Crime Ink, Andrea Campbell discusses "That Murky Question: Time of Death"
- At Texas Prison Bidness, Bob Libal lets us know the Geo Group (a private prison company) has been indicted in South Texas for an inmate's death.
- I'd missed this Statesman story last week by Steven Kreytak about rising indigent defense costs in Central Texas counties.
- In San Antonio, the Democratic Sheriff's candidate is in trouble for accepting corporate donations to his campaign.
- At the Dallas News' Crime Blog, Kevin Krause has the story of possible litigation over a recent Dallas County jail death.
Strange the in cusody death report is not an open record but jail plans are.
ReplyDeleteThe custody death report isn't available because the family has threatened to sue so it's subject to the litigation exception. There's no litigation involving the proposed jail (except the county's litigation to keep records closed) is the reason it's not subject to the same restrictions.
ReplyDeleteAmen for videotaping police interrogations. Also vidotape interrogations of prospective witnesses to make sure they are not bribed or coerced into false testimony.
ReplyDeleteCharles Kiker
I recently was a witness in a parole revocation hearing during which the parolee's private attorney was his effective advocate. Shouldn't indigent defense cover such hearings? The stakes are high.
ReplyDelete