Roundup: Recent, notable tidbits

Here are a few items I didn't get around to discussing this week that merit Grits readers' attention:

Exonerees in the news
Just-exonerated Cornelius Dupree and Cory Session, brother of the late Tim Cole, have a joint op ed in the Dallas News titled "Preventing miscarriages of justice." Dupree spent 30 years in prison before his conviction was overturned last week. Following his exoneration, Anthony Graves has moved back to Pflugerville, and KXAN-TV has an interview. Meanwhile, after being released on bail last summer, Allen Wayne Porter was formally exonerated this week in a Houston court, another case of erroneous eyewitness identification.

Dallas justice lauded and larruped
Bob Ray Sanders at the Fort Worth Startlegram says, "Every new DNA exoneration in Dallas reveals how broken the justice system is." I agree, but I also agree with the sentiment expressed in a recent Dallas News editorial that Dallas DA Craig Watkins recent, internal purge of Republican prosecutors borders on paranoia. Bad form, that. Meanwhile, Dallas County wants to change the law to protect it from liability when constables act outside the authority of their office, basically hanging the constable out to dry in a personal capacity, including making them responsible for their own defense, if their alleged misconduct is not a function of the duties of their office. There's a sense in which I agree, or at least could be convinced, but it'll be a hard sell at the capitol.

Deuell won't author needle exchange this year
State Sen. and medical doctor Bob Deuell has said he won't file legislation again this year to approve needle exchange, the Texas Tribune reports, making passage of the idea a lot less likely. Deuell said he still supports the legislation and would pick it up if it came over from the House, but it's hard to predict whether that's possible given high turnover and competing budget and redistricting priorities.

Signs in sex offenders' vehicles?
A reader points me to a story I'd missed last year regarding residency restrictions passed for registered sexual offenders in Bay City, TX. In addition to typical restrictions against living near schools, playgrounds or in multi-family dwellings, reported the Bay City Tribune, "part of the ordinance requires registered sexual offenders to prominently display a sign in the window of their automobiles or a bumper sticker — at least 3 by 10 inches in size with two-inch high lettering — that states, 'Sexual Predator’s Vehicle.'"

Jail news from roundabout
In Dallas, "The county spent $41 million more to house inmates last year than it did in 2008, according to county statistics released on Friday, despite the fact that almost 3,000 fewer people were booked into the jails in 2009." Even so, the jail is fuller because the court system is processing cases less quickly, indulging in what County Commissioner John Wiley Price called a "culture of continuance." At the Harris County Jail they plan to begin experimenting with ankle monitors and home detention for pretrial defendants. (I predict they'll find it manpower intensive to actually supervise those pretiral detainees.) Here's a tantalizing but brief overview of recent problems at the Gregg County Jail. In Belton, we find another jail built on credit that the county doesn't need in hopes of securing contract inmates. Somebody should ask McLennan and Johnson Counties how that turned out!