Showing posts with label Enhancements. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Enhancements. Show all posts
Thursday, March 22, 2018

On the limits of tuff-on-crime ideology at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

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One of Grits' favorite pastimes is parsing contentious Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decisions to better understand the dynamics and f...
9 comments:
Saturday, May 27, 2017

Bad bills rising, how to tell if debtors-prison reform works, TX police misconduct roundup, and other stories

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Here are a few odds and ends as the final days of the 85th Texas legislative session wind down: Lawyers to rep Harris defendants at bail h...
8 comments:
Saturday, April 01, 2017

Bad enhancement bill boosts pressure for false convictions

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On Monday in the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, Rep. Todd Hunter has a bill up - HB 2908 - that contains no redeeming qualities th...
14 comments:
Sunday, December 11, 2016

Case study: Why to question (another) enhancement for assaulting police officers

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Governor Greg Abbott has responded to recent ambush killings of police with a suggestion to make murder of a police officer a "hate cr...
7 comments:
Wednesday, December 07, 2016

Roundup: Jean Valjean at Christmastime and other stories

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Here are a few odds and ends which haven't made it into individual Grits posts during a busy week but which merit readers' attention...
7 comments:
Saturday, June 25, 2016

TPPF's Derek Cohen on criminal penalty enhancements

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Our pal Derek Cohen at the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Center for Effective Justice this week published a new public policy brief t...
1 comment:
Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Lege poised to criminalize violations of internet terms of service contracts

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I don't know if this will be the first new crime created by the Texas Legislature this session (I doubt it), but it's surely the m...
8 comments:
Sunday, March 08, 2015

Bathroom bill spawns glitter bomb protest

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State Rep. Debbie Riddle's district office in Montgomery County received a "glitter bomb" in the mail, reported the Texas Trib...
5 comments:
Saturday, March 07, 2015

Don't use criminal law to enforce contract terms

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A bill scheduled to be heard in the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee next week, HB 896 (Hernandez), revives the effort by inter...
4 comments:
Saturday, February 21, 2015

Debbie Riddle wants Potty Police to combat gender bending in Texas restrooms

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From the "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" Department, I think this may be my favorite* new crime proposed yet in 2015: Texas sta...
27 comments:
Tuesday, January 20, 2015

New Juvenile Justice committee in Texas House; other rules changes

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Grits finally had a moment to go through this session's rules for the Texas House of Representatives, as approved in HR 4. ( Read them h...
6 comments:
Tuesday, November 18, 2014

More criminal justice bills pre-filed at the Texas Lege

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Here are a few more bills (see here , here , here and here for earlier installments) from the first week of pre-filing at the Texas Legisl...
8 comments:

Harsher punishments for 'official oppression' by police: Would it help?

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Grits opposes most penalty enhancement bills and I may end up being against this one after I've given it sufficient thought. However, wi...
5 comments:
Wednesday, October 08, 2014

Levin: Create new barriers in House rules to new crimes, penalty enhancements

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Grits liked Marc Levin's suggestions to the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee yesterday to reduce the proliferation of new laws and...
2 comments:
Tuesday, August 20, 2013

40% increase in cattle rustling followed 2009 penalty enhancement

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Grits readers are aware of my longstanding view that "enhancing" (read: increasing) criminal penalties for things that are already...
8 comments:
Monday, July 22, 2013

Texas criminalized uprooting seagrass, legalized switchblades (but not daggers, dirks, stilettos, poniards, or Bowie knives)

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Were you aware that the Texas Legislature this session legalized switchblade knives? Me either, but HB 1862 by Dutton removed switchblades f...
7 comments:
Saturday, June 08, 2013

By the numbers: 83rd TX Lege created 33 new crimes (6 of them felonies), passed 20 enhancements

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After shifting their weekly legislative updates exclusively to email instead of posting them on their website during the final weeks of the ...
2 comments:
Friday, May 31, 2013

Javert in Waco

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California voters recently changed that state's three-strikes law so that the final strike can't be a petty offense. Perhaps someth...
9 comments:
Saturday, April 20, 2013

Levin: 'Look Askance Before You Enhance'

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The headline to this post is the title of a two-page policy brief from Marc Levin at the Texas Public Policy Foundation giving legislators ...
4 comments:
Sunday, April 07, 2013

Separate bills, committees, contemplate different-themed revamps of Texas penal laws

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Never put off until tomorrow what you can put off for a biennium. Apparently this is the week when Texas House committees will study whether...