"Bill to reduce wrongful convictions passes House," is the title of the AP report by Jay Root, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The legislation is HB 215.
The Texas House, aiming to reduce the number of wrongful convictions, approved legislation Wednesday that would require law enforcement agencies to begin standardizing the way eyewitnesses identify criminal suspects.
The unanimously approved bill would require police to adopt written policies to determine how they conduct photographic or live lineups. Agencies would be encouraged, but not required, to develop blind procedures whereby the person administering a live lineup doesn't know who the suspect is. Judges still would be given wide discretion on what evidence to admit in court.
Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, said he sponsored the bill to cut down on the leading cause of wrongful convictions. Misidentification of suspects by eyewitnesses is responsible for 75 percent of the convictions overturned by DNA evidence, according to The Innocence Project, a non-profit working to free wrongfully incarcerated people.
"What it attempts to do is standardize how these things are done, and provide model polices, because a lot of people don't know how to do it, and to proactively look for ways to do a better job at lineups," Gallego said.
And:
The bill grows out of recommendations from the Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions, named after the first Texan to be posthumously exonerated of a crime by DNA testing. Cole was wrongly convicted of a rape he did not commit in 1986 and died of complications from asthma in 1999 while serving his 25-year sentence.
The legislation faces another perfunctory vote in the House and is expected to move to the Senate as early as Thursday. If passed, it would apply to lineups conducted after Sept. 1, 2012.
The Austin American-Statesman's Postcard blog has, "Death-penalty trigger increase gets OK," posted by Mike Ward.
Legislation that would raise the age from 6 to 10 for which a child killer can be charged with the death penalty was approved this morning by the Texas Senate.
Senate Bill 377 by state Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, would bring Texas closer in line with other states, most of which have age 12 as the age-based trigger for capital murder charges.
If victims are under that age, a murderer can be more readily charged with capital murder.
For several years, Texas has had the youngest age — at 6.
To be clear, this is a death penalty expansion bill. Currently, a person can be charged with capital murder if the victim is six years of age or younger. This expands death penalty eligibility to killing a child age 10 or below.
In her Houston Chronicle column, Peggy Fikac writes, "Confirmation process may favor one Bradley."
One Bradley’s loss may be another one’s gain.
It looks like speak-his-mind prosecutor John Bradley’s appointment as head of the Forensic Science Commission will end with this legislative session.
But Bradley’s brother, the equally blunt David Bradley, may benefit if Senate Democrats also block State Board of Education Chair Gail Lowe’s appointment.
What’s more, if Gov. Rick Perry were to name David Bradley to replace Lowe after this regular session ends, senators might not get a chance to weigh in on the appointment until the 2013 regular session (barring a special session).
Perry’s appointments of Lowe and John Bradley are in trouble because a two-thirds Senate vote is needed to confirm nominees. There are 19 Senate Republicans and 12 Democrats.
A couple of Republicans have joined Democrats in opposing John Bradley. Senate Nominations Chair Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, said all the Republicans would vote for Lowe. But that’s not enough. Without a Senate vote, the appointees’ terms end when the session does in May.
David Bradley, a State Board of Education member from Beaumont, is a possible Lowe replacement. He’s a leader of conservatives who’ve made controversial social studies changes that even a conservative group said exaggerates biblical influence. Bradley once tried to insert President Barack Obama’s middle name, Hussein, in a reference to him in history standards.
Earlier coverage of the Texas eyewitness identification legislation and the John Bradley nomination, at the links.
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