Bar alleges DA misconduct in Willingham case, bad closed-records bill, auditing forfeitures, testing for steroids, diligent participation credits (federal and state) and other stories

Here are a few odds and ends that deserve readers' attention but didn't make it into individual posts during a busy week:

State bar accuses Willingham prosecutor of misconduct
Reported the Marshall Project, "the State Bar of Texas has filed a formal accusation of misconduct against the county prosecutor who convicted Cameron Todd Willingham, a Texas man executed in 2004 for the arson murder of his three young daughters." The bar "accuses [former Navarro County DA John] Jackson of having intervened repeatedly to help a jailhouse informant, Johnny E. Webb, in return for his testimony that Willingham confessed the murders to him while they were both jailed in Corsicana." From the bar complaint: "Before, during, and after the 1992 trial, [Jackson] knew of the existence of evidence that tended to negate the guilt of Willingham and failed to disclose that evidence to defense counsel. Specifically, [he] failed to make timely disclosure to the defense details of an agreement for favorable treatment for Webb, an inmate, in exchange for Webb's testimony at trial for the State."

SA4 case headed toward denouement
Again from the Marshall Project, a review of the San Antonio Four case and the difficulty of evaluating the veracity of child accusers who recant. Wrote Maurice Chammah, the SA4 cases "fall into an increasingly visible category of prisoners who have been freed due to evidence of a wrongful conviction but have not been formally declared 'innocent' by courts." This was also a case where Texas' new junk science writ came into play.

Making state employees DOB secret invites unchecked corruption
State Rep. Cindy Burkett has filed legislation to disallow people from accessing state employees birth dates under open records requests, the Dallas News reported, but this is a terrible idea that would dramatically reduce accountability in state government. As a practical matter, for an investigative reporter, a campaign opposition researcher, private investigators, citizen activists, or any independent fact finder investigating state government, date of birth is the main way one can viably distinguish individuals, especially if they have common names. (Is "Randy Jones" from the signature line of a state contract the same person as "Randall Jones" who seems to have received favorable terms on a land deal with the same company? You need a DOB to tell.) Remove that tool and much of the old-school paper trail work involving public information requests and courthouse records becomes nigh-on impossible. I understand the privacy-based impetus behind this bill, but it's profoundly misguided.

State auditor reviewing Dallas DA forfeiture expenditures
The State Auditor is investigating the asset forfeiture funds of former Dallas DA Craig Watkins following allegations that he improperly used the account to settle a civil suit over a car wreck he caused which included a gag order. The auditor's report is expected in May, reported the Dallas News.

Prison riot spurs busted contract
The feds are ending a contract with the South Texas prison where immigration detainees recently rioted, reported the Houston Chronicle. See more from Texas Prison Bidness.

State to stop steroid testing HS athletes, still no mandate to test cops
I've never understood why Texas chose to test high school athletes for steroids - despite little evidence there's a big problem with their use at that level - but never chose to test police officers, for whom there's ample evidence of significant steroid use. (To their credit, a few departments including Dallas and Arlington PD have begun testing on their own.) The state is finally going to ditch testing for high school athletes; I still think they'd expose a lot more problems by spending a fraction of that money testing police officers.

Cornyn backs aggressive sentence reductions for program participation, will Texas?
See an update on federal sentencing reforms being pushed by Texas Sen. John Cornyn. Under his bill, "Medium and low risk prisoners could earn a 25 percent sentence reduction or transfer to a halfway house or home confinement through completion of programs." That's slightly more generous, even, than the (up to) 20 percent sentence reduction which would be available to state jail felons for "diligent participation" in programming under SB 589 by Sen. Jose Rodriguez, which was heard on Wednesday in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. Perhaps Sen. Cornyn endorsing an even more aggressive version of the same idea will help Mr. Rodriguez's cause.

Stingrays and non-disclosure agreements
The New York Times this week ran a feature on the worrisome requirement that local police departments which by "StingRays" and other surveillance devices from the Harris Corporation must file non-disclosure agreements which they claim trump open records laws or, in the case of Houston PD, even a duty to disclose to prosecutors how they use the devices. These issues will soon be prominently raised in Texas as Dwayne Bohac's HB 3165, which would require law enforcement to get a warrant to target an individual's phone using the device. His bill also trumps these sorts of NDAs, making information about Stingrays subject to the usual provisions of the Public Information Act.

How jailhouse snitch testimony can 'backfire,' even with corroboration
Vice.com has a thoughtful discussion of problems with overuse jailhouse informants, even in states like California which require corroboration of their testimony (a provision, writer Kevin Munger could have added, which Texas passed two years before the Golden State).