Yesterday I noted that Third Court of Appeals ruled that Travis County prosecutors in a case against alleged murder accomplice Laura Hall acted "wilfully in failing to disclose [exculpatory] statements" to Hall's defense team, but neither the opinion nor the media coverage informed us which prosecutor was responsible for the violation.
It turns out, though, the lead prosecutor in the case was Bill Bishop, who coincidentally announced last week that he plans to run in the Democratic primary next year against Judge Charlie Baird for his seat on the 299th District Court in Austin.
So we have the judge who presided over the Tim Cole exoneration versus a prosecutor who an appellate court said "wilfully" failed to disclose Brady material in a high-profile murder case.
My view is that Mr. Bishop should be publicly sanctioned by the state bar if not fired by the DA's office for withholding evidence. Certainly there's no way Democratic primary voters should elevate him to a judicial seat with that kind of recent record.
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4 comments:
REv. Kiker here:
Hope he has opponent(s) in the Dem. primary! And perhaps you can get the word out about his record. Maybe the newspaper will weigh in.
He's running against an incumbent, Rev - in fact, Judge Baird, the fellow who presided over the Timothy Cole exoneration. Hopefully voters will clue into such distinctions.
Ha the DA is trying to paint Judge Baird as "soft on crime" and I suppose by withholding evidence beneficial to the suspect Bill Bishop puts his money where his mouth is on this one.
Rev.:
I just figured Baird was GOP. Forgot we are in Travis County on this one. But GOP does not have exclusionary rights to the asshole club!
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