Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

Source: Dallas’ Black Population Faces Much Higher Odds of Arrest for Marijuana than Whites

You can tell who the politically powerless are by who gets arrested for petty bullshit, like simple pot possession. Actually, I shouldn’t say “simple” pot possession. The conservative brain trust in Austin has fought attempts to decriminalize marijuana in the past, so ANY USABLE AMOUNT of weed in Texas is a class B misdemeanor with a punishment range that even most prosecutors are embarrassed by (up to 6 months in county, seriously.)

In Texas our criminal justice is known for targeting minorities and the poor, and that starts with who we arrest. The Dallas Observer highlights what most defense lawyers already know, the cops arrest blacks for petty bullshit at a greater % than whites. But don’t say anyone in the system is racist, or people get offended.

One area of growth in the criminal justice system is speciality courts for probationers. It started with drug courts, which were a way of accepting the idea that the drug war is a monumental failure without legalizing anything. Drugs courts have flourished and found their way into counties across Texas include Kaufman County. The idea behind speciality courts is that helping people succeed at probation is a better investment than locking people up for bullshit technical violations.

Kaufman County has two speciality courts for defendants, DWI and Drug Court (though drug court also handles mental health issues). What we’ve lacked is a program for pre trial diversion that tackles these issues. Why the delay? Well, with pre trial diversion you are not on probation, so the usually sanctions of locking people up for failing drug tests isn’t available. Instead, you have to find other ways to gain compliance and deal with the very difficult issues that are present with mental health disorders. The other difficulty is that the defendant hasn’t actually pled guilty to anything, so technically they could still have a trial and anything they say in mental health diversion court could be used against them.

Right now the counties have to find solutions for these issues themselves, and Kaufman County has a pretty long application process and waiver that offers some solutions. I’m hopeful that the lege will help expand these courts and offer some protections for defendants on these cases. At least until the point we maybe quit arresting the mentally ill and those who simply possess drugs? I mean, I can dream right?

A majority of Dallas City Council members said today that they’d like police to try a pilot program that’d ticket people caught with marijuana instead of arresting them. Some council…

Source: City Council members give first nod to pilot program that’d allow tickets instead of arrests for marijuana possession | | Dallas Morning News

I’m for anything that moves us further away from cannabis prohibition inanity, but the recent move by Dallas to write tickets for pot isn’t as great as you think.

As any believer in sound money will tell you, inflation eats away at the purchasing power of your dollar. But without indexing for inflation, a thief who steals $49 worth of good 15 years ago, got a lot better deal than one who stole something 15 months ago.

In acknowledgement of this economic fact the legislature recently lowered the theft penalty ranges, by increasing how much shit you can steal before it becomes a felony, or class B misdemeanor.

The new amounts, for theft offenses committed after 9/1/2015, are as follows-

Now that gays are guaranteed the right to marry and protected by the US Constitution, would it be illegal for a county clerk to refuse to offer a gay couple a marriage license? Has Ken Paxton (our admitted felon AG) opened up county clerks across the State to criminal liability with his letter advising them they can not provide marriage licenses to same-sex couples?

Let’s look at the Official Oppression statute for a minute. It’s TPC 39.03 (so no rule of lenity here). I’m going to add some emphasis.

Sec. 39.03. OFFICIAL OPPRESSION. (a) A public servant acting under color of his office or employment commits an offense if he:

In Texas a blue warrant has long been the enemy of all those who are on paper. A blue warrant is what we call a warrant issued for a parole violation. Allegedly, they used to be issued on blue paper, hence the name.

The Governor recently signed SB790, so after 9/1/15 you will be able to actually have a bond set on a blue warrant if you meet certain requirements. Blue warrants have typically meant a very extended stay in the county jail while the system sorted out your new case (which is the cause of many blue warrants), or the Parole Board decided what to do about your technicals (dirty UAs, missing meetings etc). Bond just wasn’t an option for a blue warrant before, but it will be soon.

This move should save counties a nice pile of cash. As I write this Kaufman County has 19 “Hold For TDCJ” inmates right now, that’s more than any other criminal offense. This bill is part of a larger Smart on Crime movement, which is a nice way of saying that up until recently, we have been stupid on crime. Being stupid (“tuff”) is expensive. Holding people who pose no threat to public safety is a great way to waste tax dollars, letting people out on bond saves you money, so we only pay to lock up people we are truly scared of, not merely mad at.

You’d think we were all watching different videos given the reaction to the McKinney pool party videos. Conservatives and authoritarians lining up to defend Casebolt against the THUGS (which feels like a substitute for a racial slur) and libertarians/liberals standing up for the individuals affected by Casebolt’s recklessly aggressive form of barrell roll Rambo-style policing. One thing to note about authoritarian thinking, and the right/left divide in this country, is that it may be neurological. And your reaction to the Casebolt video isn’t because of what an objective common-sense individual  you are, but how your brain tells you to feel about the video. 

So if you wonder why the facebook debates regarding this arrest don’t actually get anywhere, or why the upcoming presidential race will see millions of tweets/debates/comment wars that convert no one, it may be because we are more hard wired to our politics than we are able to freely choose to be a Libertarian, Green or Tea Party Patriot. It’s also a reason that many a defense voir dire seminar emphasizes striking authoritarians as they enjoy aggression against outliers and are fans of submission to, and violence by, authority.

Is this a turning point in our national debate over modern policing?