- Good luck to Kerry Max Cook today as his habeas hearing begins in Tyler. Michael Hall at Texas Monthly has a great writeup: "The Usual Suspect: Stunning new evidence in the case of Kerry Max Cook casts serious doubt on his 1978 murder conviction–and points emphatically at another man." See also coverage from Brandi Grissom at the Dallas News. UPDATE: Congratulations, Kerry! From Texas Monthly, "district attorney Matt Bingham agreed to not contest Cook’s writ of habeas corpus—and to join with Cook’s attorneys in recommending that his murder conviction be overturned."
- Houston Chronicle: "Woman's jail death under investigation, Harris County Sheriff says." The dead woman "arrested for allegedly stealing four bottles of baby formula, but the charges were elevated to a felony because she had two prior theft convictions." Maybe the nastiest enhancement on the books.
- Salon: "Criminal Injustice in Texas: Thousands stay jailed in one county because they can't make bail, and it's happening all over the U.S.." Harris County held up as a national exemplar of what not to do.
- The Texas Standard radio show had a feature titled "How bail bonds create two justice systems: One for the rich and one for the poor."
- John Wool, Vera Institute: "How our user-pay justice system drives mass incarceration."
- The Courthouse News Service reported on a lawsuit out of McAllen alleging that, "A Texas police dispatcher raped a woman for hours in her cell and when his bosses saw the footage they 'offered her a taco,' but refused to take her to a hospital."
- Finally, yesterday AP published this picture of TDCJ's still-flooded Terrell Unit inundated by the Brazos River in Brazoria County. Might the Lege consider closure instead of paying for repairs?
TDCJ's Terrell Unit, photo via AP.
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8 comments:
That's the C.T.Terrell Unit.
The water is clearly not inside the main building of the facility.
Fixed it, gracias 10:04.
@11:10, hard to tell. The high water mark was several days prior.
Since Texas is being sued for not having the prisons air conditioned, any units with air conditioning should not be closed. I don't know if Terrell has it or not, but a/c should be the deciding factor.
I touched on this in a comment on a story you had about new theft rates. You hit on an important enhancement that needs serious overhaul. 2 Misd thefts + 1 = SJF is out of control.
I agree, no one likes a thief. No business should be subjected to lost income, etc. But I have personally handled cases of SJF on a pair of pants, another dealing with baby formula, another dealing with a candy bar and others. All had two prior thefts, and all looking at 6 months to 2 years in a SJF. Is stealing wrong, yes. No question. But we are not talking about jewel heist masterminds who turn around and do it again. Time and time again it's low end theft. What is the remedy, I am not sure it's locking someone up for 6 months to 2 years, so they lose whatever income they did have, or any opportunity to have an income to have the taxpayers pay for incarceration.
These are not rich folks who are bored, typically the poorest of the poor who are stealing essentials (e.g. jeans so they can have something to go to work in). Does it make right, no. But these SJF theft enhancements are not the answer either.
My God! Glad they evac'd the offenders and the officers! Target this one for demo!
Terrell does not have a/c.
Grits doesn't want anything to do with the Kerry Max Cook injustice in Tyler...a little nepotism involved Grits? The Smith county DA's(AD Clark, Jack Skeen, David Dobbs, Matt Bingham) have 40 yrs.of Criminal injustice against a innocent man Mr. Cook. Now Gary Udeshan of the innocent project has sold Mr.Cook out.
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