Sunday, June 08, 2014

Indigent defense agenda packed

Looks like quite the full agenda (pdf) at next Friday's Texas Indigent Defense Commission wonkfest quarterly meeting.

Note to reporters: These meetings offer one-stop shopping for identifying statewide issues with local examples and often all the players in one room. Don't just cover the meeting, use the meeting to identify other issues to cover. Looking at this agenda, there may be a half dozen different stories of significance discussed next Friday that nobody really talks about anywhere else.

Criminal justice coverage would be a lot better in this state if just a couple of paid professionals were assigned to cover the significant, ongoing meetings of the relevant state agencies and legislative committees. Hundreds of writers weighed in on "affluenza," but there's a decent chance not one paid reporter shows up at next Friday's TIDC meeting.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Indigent defense in Texas, lol.
Very much like the Steve Miller song, "...go on take the money and run..."
Feel sorry for anyone who may not have committed the crime but has to rely on a court appointed lawyer to defend them. There are some who hold themselves to a higher moral standard but that is the exception rather than the rule.

Anonymous said...

Criminals don't declare their income (their ill gotten goods) so we can call them "indigent."

Anonymous said...

One thing they won't discuss is why these "indigents" have to commit their crimes in the first place.
They play, we pay.