TCDLA Texas Criminal Law Short Course - Voice For The Defense ...

President's Column
Come to Fort Worth
This issue of Voice for the Defense is This fictional equation is often repeated
Your Personal invitation to attend our by our Assistant District Attorneys in plea
"First Annual" Texas Criminal Law Short negotiations, It is &perfect example of the
Course, September 28-30, 19% at the psychological power of repeating the Big
Hyatt Regency in Fort Worth. Just Lie. TDC's statistics show that the myth
photocopy the application and mail it in.-\ finds support only when sentences are
Your favorite judges will be at the Annual short, and are preceded by lengthy jail
Judicial Conference, also in Fort Worth, time.
at the same time. So. let's - eo! TCDLA The true average time served is above
First Vice-president Tim Evans is planning 25%.
a major social for Friday night at the con- The range of possibilities goes all the
clusion of the seminar, and you are en- way to day-for-day. Our Board specialist
couraged to be our guest when the TCDLA in prison matters, Bill Habem, advises that
Board meets on Saturday.
one-month-per-year is achieved only in a
This will he the first meeting of the full small fraction of "optimum" cases-first
1988-89 Board of Directors and, with your offenders, no weapons, no victim or ofhelp,
we will set our priorities for the year. ficial protest, etc.
For example, we will take a preliminary The calendar time served by Texas inlook
at what defense lawyers will be fac- mates for specific offense conduct remains
ing when the legislature convenes in above the national average.
January. Some news publishers and politi- Nevertheiess, this "Special Report" by
cians are already beating the drum for the Post had an obvious purpose: Building
greater suffering for defendants and a foundation for pupular icceptance of new
defenders. In Houston, we've had an en- laws-laws that could actunllv anmlifv the
& .
tite substation of our city's police force twin disasters of prison overcrowding and
shamed and disgraced by the disclosure underfunded rehabilitation programs. The
that more than a hundred citizens were put "solutions" being proposed by the Goverin
the penitentiary in the last year or two nor's Criminal Justice Task Force include:
by perjured testimony-and that many of
the victims of these police crimes were innocent!
Predictably, "opinion leaders"
from certain established interests are
distracting the attention of the citizenry
from the need for police reform.
On Sunday, August 7, the Ho~rston Post
devoted three pages to the dilemma created
by our legacy of mnning the Texas Department
of Corrections as an advanced school
for crime: The articles rehashed old
themes, including the claim that sentences
are too short. The Post said that Houston's
"finest" are "demoralized" by the common
myth that a typical sentence is served
at the rate of one-month-per-year, before
parole.
1. Increasing actual time served (to
reduce overcrowding?).
2. More forfeitures (zero tolerance?).
3. Mandatory drug testing for all
parolees (who is making money on
the marketing of these testing
programs?).
4. Requiring educational acheivement
at the high school level as a prerequisite
for parole.
5. Giving the prosecution theexclusive
right to decide whether Judge or
Jury will assess punishment (whose
right of trial by jury is it, anyway?).
6. Admit the uncorroborated testimony
of any officer in whose cus-
Ed Mallett
tody the defendant gave an unsworn,
unrecorded, informal "oral
confession."
7. Admit illegally seized evidence,
where the officers testify to their
subjective "good faith" (ignorance
of the law may be an excuse).
8. Enhance the "rights of victims."
9. Let private industry "employ" inmates
who are confined at TDC.
10. Consider alternatives to imprisonment.
The TCDLA needs to do more than
identify the weaknesses and contradictions
in much of the above. We need to thoughtfully
encourage reform by the lawmakers
while exposing the sheer folly of trying to
increase public safety by locking more
people up and holding them in unairconditioned,
single sex, crowded, concrete
and steel rooms, with little in the way of
individual responsibility, for longer
periods, then releasing them with shortened
periods of supervision on the streets.
Already the American "Gulag" imprisons
a higher percentage of our citizens than
any "civilized" country except the Soviet
Union and South Africa. This never-ending
rhetoric about a "war on crime" is,
I imagine, particularly attractive to the
dark side of the American psyche-those
I
4 VOICE for the Defense / September 1988