Revenge of McLovin: Bills good and bad try to sneak in under deadline

Taps played in the Texas House last night as the clock struck midnight, signaling the death of several thousand bills filed in the lower chamber that didn't make it out by the deadline, at least for this session. (Now, of course, begins the biennial sport of tacking on dead bills to still-moving legislation.)

Looking at the bills that did make it through on the final day, these criminal justice highlights stand out:

Innocence Investigated
HB 498 (McLendon) - Creating an Innocence Commission to investigate false convictions and identify reforms to prevent their recurrence. (See prior Grits coverage.) This bill in 2007 passed the Senate but died in the House, so its prospects look fairly bright headed into the eastern wing of the capitol, where most senators have already voted for it. Earlier in the day, the House concurred with Senate amendments on HB 1736, approving increased compensation for exonerated inmates.

Rethinking the 'Law of Parties'
HB 2267 (Hodge) - Would require severing trials in capital cases involving the law of parties and make the maximum penalty for nonkiller accomplices in capital cases life without parole. (See prior Grits coverage.)

Investing in Human Capital at TDCJ
HB 518 (Kolkhorst) - Would create a student loan repayment program at Sam Houston State for graduates who go to work at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Not as good as a pay hike, but as my father likes to say, it's better than a sharp stick in the eye.

As always, there were also a few penalty "enhancements" thrown into the mix:

Cinderella's Last Dance
The last House bill approved by the lower chamber before Cinderella's carriage turned into a pumpkin was HB 1396 by Farrar, increasing penalties for "burglary of a vehicle" to a state jail felony on the second offense. This is an attempt by the House to go back on a deal with the Senate from 2005 that resulted in the current statutory construction (SJF on a third offense with a mandatory incarceration stint in the county jail on a second offense).

If there's one thing I've noticed about such deals at the capitol, it's that deals that satisfy pro-incarceration interests are considered sacrosanct while every deal to limit incarceration is always open to renegotiaton. When discussing state jail felony statutes at the Lege, you'll often hear someone tell you, "Oh, we can't do that, it would go back on the deal we made with prosecutors in 1993." Forget that most of the elected DAs from 1993 are gone now or that deals like this one on burglary of a vehicle can be reneged on two sessions down the line.

As usual, the Legislative Budget Board claims the 24 new prisoners per year and a couple hundred additional probationers will all be free to house and manage, a legislative fiction that allows the bill to pass with no "fiscal note."

Revenge of McLovin
The other remarkable enhancement bill from last night was HB 2411 by Fletcher, which failed on a 90-39 record vote after the chair had already announced its voice-vote approval. The bill would have made it a third degree felony to attempt to use phony documents to get a drivers license, though humorously the bill as it came out of committee would have (erroneously) removed all penalties for that offense. It also made it a third-degree felony to lend your own drivers license or make it available for someone else's use.

Rep. Jim Dunnam came to the back mike to question Fletcher, telling him that his "primary constitutent," his son, it turns out, had called him to say he wanted to keep the language that made it legal to seek an ID under a false name. The reason, he said, was that his teenager wanted to get an ID with the name "McLovin" on it, and this bill as written would allow him to do that. :)

Dunnam was also concerned, he said, about the penalty for making your drivers license available to someone else. He said he was hoping Dan Branch or some other GOP legislator would invite him to visit a country club one day, and he understood you have to give your ID to get a towel, without which he couldn't go to the pool. "My hair doesn't look very good air dried," the Democratic Caucus leader deadpanned. Another rep chimed in that the idea of Rep. Dunnam without a towel brought up "a visual" that disturbed him and suggested a "bracket" for the Waco legislator.

All fun aside, nobody was laughing when, after initially the bill appeared to pass on a voice vote, a record vote was granted and 90 members voted against the legislation. (Okay, maybe there was a small, wry grin on Warren Chisum's face; he seemed to be enjoying the exchange.) Eight others joined the majority in a motion to reconsider and table the bill for good, permanently killing it for the session. (Watch the video here beginning around the 8-hour, 47-minute mark.)