[Throughout the session, we will post excerpts from our weekly legislative updates on this webpage.  To receive the full update, contact Shannon Edmonds.]

Interim charges

Literally hundreds of interim recommendations have been submitted by various standing legislative committees and published in the past two. Among the highlights are these recommendations:

House Criminal Jurisprudence
• Charge 1 (deferred adjudication): protect records sealed by non-disclosure from release by third-party vendors; admonish defendants about the consequences of a successfully completed deferred adjudication; authorize deferred adjudication for DWI-1st offenses
• Charge 2 (public defenders): provide more state funding for public defenders; consider creation of a statewide public defender office for all offenders
• Charge 3 (human trafficking): expand the scope of the current offense; provide more training and technology to law enforcement; divert asset forfeiture money seized in human trafficking cases to victim rehabilitation and victim advocacy groups
• Charge 4 (veterans courts): expand them

House Corrections
• Charge 1 (TYC): continue downsizing TYC and keeping youth in community-based programs

Senate Criminal Justice
• Charge 1 (sex offender registration): do not adopt stricter standards for registration
• Charge 2 (DWI): eliminate/reduce surcharges; simplify DL suspension laws; authorize deferred adjudication; enhance penalties for drivers with high BACs; regulate blood draws
• Charge 6 (crime labs): make crime labs independent from law enforcement; evaluate the benefits of private labs; authorize the DPS crime lab to charge local agencies for its work
• Charge 8 (TYC): continue downsizing TYC and keeping youth in community-based programs; consider consolidation of TYC and TJPC

Remember that interim study recommendations can be a great springboard for the passage of legislation-or, they can a complete waste of time. (That may explain the lack of reports being issued by several committees.) There's no way to know for sure, so if you have a question about any of these highlighted recommendations, call or email us for more information. To read them yourself, go to the applicable House or Senate website (for the latter, you have to select each individual committee and scroll to the bottom of the webpage to find the report).

Bill filings

Things were quiet during the holidays, but that will end this week; this is the shortest "bill filings" list we'll see between now and March. Among the bills filed since our last update are:

HB 439 by T. Smith authorizing DWI checkpoints
HB 440 by Turner prohibiting peace officers from taking blood in DWI investigations
HB 446 by Guillen imposing and regulating open-file discovery in criminal cases
HB 463 by Kleinschmidt requiring judgments to include defendants' DOBs and DLs
HB 473 by T. Smith requiring ignition interlocks in all DWI cases
HB 482 by Dutton imposing new requirements on agreed protective orders
HB 487 by Dutton permitting testimony by certain children at protective order hearings
HB 488 by Dutton lowering the standard for obtaining a subsequent death penalty writ
HB 489 by Dutton creating reciprocal discovery in criminal cases
HB 506 by Callegari requiring ignition interlock in all DWI cases
HB 509 by Guillen increasing the fine for reckless driving
HB 512 by Dutton imposing requirements upon consent searches
HB 515 by Dutton requiring the trier of fact to make a family violence finding
SB 295 by Watson increasing penalties for assaulting emergency room personnel
SB 297 by Wentworth authorizing jurors to take notes during civil trials
SB 306 by Huffman requiring court clerks to perfect restitution liens in certain cases

Victim services update

Dallas County Victim Assistance Coordinator Chris Jenkins has discovered several errors in TDCJ's intake system regarding stacked sentences being incorrectly entered as concurrent ones. TDCJ staff has been made aware of the situation, but you and your staff may want to double-check your cases. The TDCJ Victim Services Division toll free number is 800/848-4284, the local Austin area number is 512/406-5900, and the email address is victim.svc@tdcj.state.tx.us. (This is also a good contact number to make sure that Victim Impact Statements have been received.) Don't be shy about following up on your stacked cases-if you don't do it, who will?