Pubdate: Thu, 04 Jun 2015
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2015 The Dallas Morning News, Inc.
Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/send-a-letter/
Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117

TOWARD FAIRER JUSTICE

Legislature Passed Impressive Array of Reforms

Texas leads the nation in executions. Texas leads the nation in 
DNA-proven wrongful convictions. Texas is a leader in the rate of 
incarceration. All regrettable. All true.

What's equally true is this: A bipartisan coalition to improve Texas 
justice didn't ease up in this year's legislative session. While 
lawmakers left some important reforms on the table, they did pass an 
impressive array of bills to make Texas justice fairer, less 
error-prone and more humane.

The left-right coalition remained in view the day after the session 
ended this week. Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio, announced 
that Gov. Greg Abbott had signed her bill to create the Timothy Cole 
Exonerations Review Commission, named for the only Texan to be 
posthumously pardoned.

Flanking McClendon were representatives from the right-leaning Texas 
Public Policy Foundation and the left-leaning American Civil 
Liberties Union. McClendon gave a shout-out to members of both 
parties, including Republican Rep. Jeff Leach of Plano, who ran 
interference for her HB 48.

Advocates have been working on this reform for 12 years. The new 
panel will analyze wrongful convictions and recommend ways to avoid 
breakdowns in the future. The final version wasn't ideal - the 
commission's scope was limited, and it will expire after issuing a 
report next year - but call it a leap forward for Texas justice.

Abbott has also signed other significant reforms, including SB 487 by 
Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, to improve post-conviction access to 
DNA evidence for testing. There's no excuse for maintaining barriers 
to information that should be weighed in the jury room.

Regrets this session? Lawmakers have a few in the justice category, 
such as lack of headway for a bill requiring police to record 
interrogations of felony suspects. In this day of police body cams, 
opponents of this reform will soon run out of excuses. If cops get a 
confession out of a suspect, jurors ought to be able to see or hear 
it for themselves.

It's also a disappointment that lawmakers enacted no proposed 
drug-sentencing reforms to curb the practice of needlessly packing 
nonviolent, possession-only offenders into jails and prisons.

Abbott did sign one cannabis-related bill, SB 339, to provide legal 
access to low-THC marijuana extracts for people to treat symptoms of 
intractable seizures.

The bill, by Sen. Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler, was called the Compassionate 
Use Act. A more compassionate approach would be joining the 23 other 
states with broader forms of medical marijuana. Shouldn't people 
afflicted with PTSD and Parkinson's disease have legal access to the 
weed also, if it eases their symptoms?

Lawmakers would have made an even wider impact by reclassifying 
possession of small amounts of marijuana from a criminal to a civil offense.

Most thoughtful people agree that the war on drugs is a colossal, 
expensive failure, yet Texas law still provides for jail time for 
possessing a pinch of pot. HB 507 would have corrected that; it 
cleared committee but died awaiting a House vote.

Anachronisms need to be purged from Texas drug laws, but that task 
will fall to lawmakers in 2017.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom