DMN's Texas Justice Series

» DMN: Unequal Justice: What's wrong with Texas?

Great series of stories running in the Dallas Morning News about crimes committed by parolees. What got particular interest this morning was that my own State Rep. got some quotes in there. Interestingly, he's been trying to get something passed that you'd think the so-called "tough on crime GOP" would love. But apparently, it's been an uphill battle:

For several years, state Rep. Scott Hochberg has fought an often lonely battle in the Legislature to ban probation as a sentence for murder. That's what he was working on earlier this year, when Mr. Dutton promised everyone free meals.

Mr. Hochberg's inspiration was the 1998 murder trial of a man who shot a tow-truck driver for trying to remove his vehicle from a reserved parking spot. Harris County jurors convicted the killer but awarded him probation after six of his co-workers - firefighters in uniform - praised him on the witness stand.

But Mr. Hochberg has had difficulty building support. Texas prosecutors and defense lawyers don't want anything to limit their flexibility when making deals.

"They each tenaciously try to hold on to the tools in their tool chest," the Houston Democrat said.

In this year's legislative session, Mr. Hochberg got half of what he wanted. For murders committed after Sept. 1, juries cannot sentence people to probation for murder. But prosecutors still can cut the kind of deals The News found prevalent in its study.

Few expect the new law to change jurors' behavior much. They often have the option to convict a murder defendant on a lesser charge, such as manslaughter, for which probation remains available.

Prosecutors will also gain more power. They can sell probation by telling murder defendants that a plea bargain is the only way to get it.

Right up front, I'll point out that I actually disagree with Scott on this. While I can understand the outrage over the trial in question, I'm typically a fan of letting judges be judges and jurors be jurors. And if you don't like the way they rule, vote out the judge. Still, it's remarkable to me that this is described as a "lonely battle." I'm curious where the state level pressure is to NOT head down the path of the national trend of more restrictive sentencing guidelines. Judges? District Attorneys?

Even more interesting is that you've got the District Attorneys from two supposedly liberal counties saying that they don't offer parole for murder cases. Read through the entire series and you get a few clues on the situation. Good stuff throughout.