Friday, December 31, 2010

Happy New Year/Criticizing Christmas Clemency

Happy New Year everybody. Use this as an open thread to help me finish a list of the biggest Texas criminal justice stories of 2010 that I started for today but procrastinated. Sharon Keller's acquittal? John Bradley's bullying of the Forensic Science Commission? The exonerations of Anthony Graves and Michael Green? Speculative jails going bust for lack of inmates? Appellate courts shutting down hearings on the Todd Willingham case and the constitutionality of the death penalty? What else happened this year: What do you think were the biggest stories?
 
Also, for those interested, and I realize it's not the hottest topic I cover on this blog, the Dallas News today published an op ed I wrote criticizing Christmastime clemency for treating pardons like Christmas gifts instead of the pivotal and neglected check and balance on abuses in the justice system anticipated by the Founding Fathers. (Related: See similar commentary on federal clemency, or the lack thereof, published the same day in the Washington Post.)

Stay safe tonight and have a great new year.

See recent Grits posts on clemecy:

2 comments:

  1. Good op. ed. in DMN. Congrats, Scott.
    Rev. Charles

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  2. First, thanks for this blog. I found it recently, and it has helped me in several ways. Keep up the good work. The absurdity of the Roddy Pippin case- along with the sheer meanness of the DA's and judges involved- got me involved in criminal justice awareness. Awareness UTMB's shockingly haphazard care of inmates followed soon after as we battled to force them to treat his Type 1 diabetes, just to keep him alive through his illegally stacked state jail sentences. Add the info from this and other blogs, and I now have a passion for reform of our horrific prison system. Thanks for that! Injustice degrades us all. I was raised to believe that we Americans are better than that.

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