Harris County litigation frames debate over bail bill

Grits remains excited about bail-reform legislation being promoted by Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht and Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller this session, and carried at the Lege by John Whitmire (SB 1338) in the Senate and Andrew Murr (HB 3011) in the House. Those are some big guns aimed at a big problem.

The bills have been filed and at this point we're waiting to seen when the legislation will get a public hearing. There's still plenty of time, but the clock is definitely ticking.

Creating even more urgency for legislative action, an article from Courthouse News makes it sound like Harris County is losing its bail litigation against civil rights advocates in federal court. So the state may want to reform the system itself rather than wait for a judge to declare it unconstitutional and make the changes the way she prefers. Here's another story from Courthouse News describing the risk-assessment tool which would be used in Harris County if the plaintiffs win.

In the last legislative session, we saw an odd race between the Legislature and the Court of Criminal Appeals to be the first to define the scope of Texas' new junk science writ. (The Legislature won.) Now we see a similar race between the Legislature with its big pretrial bills and a federal judge who seems exasperated these changes haven't been implemented already in the state's largest county.

Formally, these two developments are unrelated. But if legislation passes, it will let judges in Houston acquiesce in the suit without losing face and perhaps could help forestall intervention into Harris County's system by the federal judiciary. Or, if the bill fails, Judge Rosenthal might feel free to impose her own sense of how things should work.

MORE: Go here to send your state senators an email supporting Sen. Whitmire's big pretrial release bill.