- Read former offender Doug Smith, who now works for the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, writing on his personal blog about racial disparities in incarceration rates. See an interview with Doug here.
- Check out the web page for a Prisoners Family conference in Dallas next May.
- See a new report from the Vera Institute on policing and mental health and overview coverage from the Texas Tribune.
- Here's a suggestion for how to prosecute abusive prosecutors.
- Mark Bennett's series on attorneys who phoned in clemency for a death-row client achieved appropriate levels of scorn. See here, here, and here.
- A quick roundup of some of the good work from Grits' new contributing writers: Sandra Guerra Thompson had a couple of blog posts recently at Brandon Garrett's Forensics Forum and was quoted in this story in the Atlantic about the Waco biker shootout. Eva Ruth Moravec had two items on her personal blog last month on topics which may interest Grits readers. Michele Deitch was quoted in this story in the International Business Times on private prisons and a Dallas News story on jail suicides. Rebecca Bernhardt was quoted in a Dallas Observer article, "Presumed innocent but locked up: Dallas County's bail system punishes the poor." Lastly, Grits has been re-reading Jennifer Laurin's law review article from this spring titled, "Gideon by the Numbers: The Emergence of Evidence-Based Practice in Indigent Defense." So should you.
- Finally, thanks to Grits donors, I just ordered this book which one hopes will bolster and supplement the blog's coverage of police tech. I mention it only to let donors know the sort of thing (besides subscriptions) your blog donations go for. If you care to support this blog financially, use the Paypal buttons in the righthand column.
Sunday, November 29, 2015
Hodgepodge of stuff that interested me
Just a few odds and ends, including several from close to home:
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2 comments:
More than informative. Helpful!
Hey Grits, regarding: Giving Up, Surrendering & the Texas TapOut(tm).
Despite my roll in the reformation movement having absolutely nothing to do with: Death Row, DNA & Colors, it doesn't forbid me from calling B.S. on crapola and shinning big-ass lights on dimmed-down topics. If it's cool with you, I invited a couple of judges to chime in and season the Hodgepodge, when time allows of course.
While I personally appreciate it when anyone spanks the living crap out those truly deserving of it (and, Mr. B. did a pretty good job I might add), it would accomplish nothing for me or, anyone to pile on at this point on a personal level towards Volberding & Kretzer. Yes, they are scumbags that were allowed to give up on a dying scumbag. With that, I ask folks to consider reading all-about-it and then take a pause in order to ask relevant questions beginning with - Why?.
We, the public at large, (as a whole) are guilty of knowingly & willingly allowing and basically condoning the Act of Fighting Crime to result in the majority of criminal cases being disposed of via: Plea Bargaining (aka: The Texas TapOut), vs. full jury trials to verdict, where Guilt or, Innocence matters. If the jury gets it wrong, the wronged can exhaust all direct appeals, qualify for assistance and get paid / bribed to go away. With that stuck way up in everyone's fuse-box, the question I pose, remains the same.
*Why in the hell are we conspiring in mass (head in sand = being in on it) allowing the rest of the FAKE CDLs to get away with pulling the same exact crap these two were allowed to pull off? When a lawyer is allowed to: forego vetting / investigating a client's claim of innocence, utilizes the first jail-house visit or, lunch recess on day one of a jury trial to 'Advise' one to avoid or, stop the jury trial in progress in order to Take-the-Plea, due to being on Probation at time of arrest and told it was automatically Revoked, it's the same as - Giving Up with Deception, Surrendering without a fight & Unnecessary Tapping-Out. The real and only difference being, is that the Death Row client gets a Real CDL Team and automatic appeals, all the way up until his / her very last day on Earth. When lawyers are compensated in advance or, through submitting invoices & grossly fail to provide legal representation and Team-Up with the D.A's Office, they become criminals themselves and should expect to be indicted vs. simply trashed in blogs. Theft of Service, I.A.C. & Dabbling should be Law Degree killers, but that’s just my opinion.
As for the person that's tricked into assisting in his / her own conviction with pre-trial automatic revocation lies or, "it's cheaper to TapOut", a well placed loophole waiver prevents appealing and is used as a Policy / Rule by some in preventing post conviction assistance consideration. With, no contest / nolo contendere being Shiester Latin for Guilty with an no-appeal clause, the deck is stacked from start to finish for the rest of their lives. Therefore, the non-Death Row (victim-of-the-system) spends countless days & nights fighting to keep his manhood / her womanhood intact and trying not to get killed in a race riot or, praying not to die due to being deprived of life saving meds. It doesn't matter, a two man cell, a 120 man dorm are and can be death rooms for the guilty and not guilty alike. If CDLs were forced to be Board Certified before taking any criminal cases and if it were mandatory that all Not Guilty pleas be disposed of via: jury trials all the way to verdict, the Texas TapOut would be considered taboo vs. a freaky dance performed by well dressed and degreed monkeys as they lead their poor & clueless clients to the judge’s chambers whispering - don’t say anything and sign here, here, here, & initial here & here.
Thanks.
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