Blogspot - gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com - Grits for Breakfast
General Information:
Latest News:
Justice for Sale: Cameron judge took bags of cash to influence court outcomes 27 Aug 2013 | 03:40 pm
Via AP (Aug. 21), here's the denouement of an extraordinarily ugly story of South Texas corruption: A former judge who turned his South Texas courtroom into a money-making operation was sentenced We...
Texas reforms helping change D.C. gridlock on drug-law sentencing 26 Aug 2013 | 11:55 pm
Changing attitudes in Texas are altering the conversation in Washington D.C. about drug law reform. For evidence, check out these two items published today which both cite Texas de-incarceration strat...
'Dallas police are finding drug houses by walking up and asking' 26 Aug 2013 | 11:31 pm
It has long amazed Grits how frequently people - both law abiding folks and criminals - give police consent to search, both at traffic stops and in their homes. The Dallas News has a fascinating story...
As death drugs dwindle, why not use firing squads for Texas executions? 26 Aug 2013 | 09:15 pm
Image via Sentencing Law and Policy Prosecutors have been complaining that a requirement for DNA testing before executing someone will slow down executions, but a much more practical concern is likel...
Bad facts, tales of dead men, and NSA pick up lines 26 Aug 2013 | 03:14 am
Here are a few odds and ends that didn't make it into their own Grits posts this week but deserve readers' attention: David Dewhurst makes the call Note to public officials: If your relative is arres...
State justice system constrains liberty of 3.4% of Texas adults: How to reduce the government footprint 25 Aug 2013 | 09:22 pm
Yesterday Grits spent a couple of hours going through a recent, fact-laden report (pdf) from the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, pulling out interesting tidbits and money quotes to highlight. Then I...
Habeas history 25 Aug 2013 | 06:22 pm
Grits mentioned the other day the much-misunderstood fact that habeas corpus is a governmental power - not a right of individuals the way we think of the bill of rights - and that historically interve...
Police tech: Body cams, Google Glass, and cop cars of the future 24 Aug 2013 | 05:39 am
A decade ago Texas passed significant incentives as part of its 2003 racial profiling statute to put dashcams in police cars, with voters approving $18 million to pay for departments to install them. ...
Habeas reform at the Texas Legislature: The backstory 23 Aug 2013 | 05:02 pm
At the Texas Bar Journal, Harris County criminal defense attorney Brian Wice has a short essay (pdf) describing his involvement in the passage of SB 344 by Sen. John Whitmire expanding access to habea...
Austin police calls for service flat, handled less effectively by ever-more officers 22 Aug 2013 | 04:34 pm
While I was out of town there was a nice story at KUT-Austin on Councilmember Bill Spelman's argument that the City of Austin doesn't need to fund more police officers or detectives in its next budget...
