The cool kids went on Spring Break but all you got was this lousy email update.

Looking ahead

Committees are hitting their stride and the volume of bills being considered in public hearings will continue to increase, but the big news next week will be about the budget. On Wednesday (March 27), the House will take up both SB 500 by Nelson (R-Flower Mound), the supplemental appropriation bill for the remainder of this fiscal year, and HB 1 by Zerwas (R-Richmond), the House’s proposed state budget for FY 2020-21. That will consume most of the latter part of the week in the House, and then the Senate Finance Committee will debate and vote out its competing version of the budget (SB 1), so next week will be all about the Benjamins. 

Hemp and CBD products

We receive legal calls about this subject on a weekly basis, so let us provide a few updates on recent events. (Not answers, necessarily, but we hope it’s useful information.)

First, the Texas Department of State Health Services has posted an amendment to the state’s schedule of controlled substances that will remove “hemp” from Schedule I, bringing Texas’ schedules into compliance with the 2018 Federal Farm Bill. That de-scheduling excludes from the schedules’ current definitions of marijuana what the feds now define as “hemp”: namely, “the plant Cannabis sativa L. and any part of that plant, including the seeds there-of and all derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids, isomers, acids,  salts, and salts of isomers, whether growing or not, with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of not more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis.” (For those wondering, yes—hemp and marijuana are the same plant, hemp just has little-to-none of the stuff that gets you high.)

However, this re-definition in the schedules is not the end of the story in Texas because unlike the feds, we have both regulatory schedules made by agency rule and criminal penalty groups and related definitions codified in our Controlled Substances Act (CSA) which govern the prosecution of those laws (per Health & Safety Code §481.101). Thus, while this de-scheduling of hemp makes the definition of marijuana in DSHS’s regulatory schedules even more different than it previously was from the statutory definition of “marihuana” in the CSA, the latter still has not been changed—and that’s the law that actually makes possession or delivery of that substance a crime either as “marihuana” or as a Penalty Group 2 tetrahydrocannabinol. Only the legislature can adjust those criminal definitions, and several bills have been filed to do so—but you’ll have to check back again after the session to see what, if anything, passes. Meanwhile, this de-scheduling was published on March 15th and becomes effective 21 days later, which means that on Friday, April 5, 2019, you are going to have a lot of people claiming hemp is completely legal in Texas when in fact, it may become legal for some (scheduled) purposes but not for other (criminal) purposes.

Elsewhere, the McAllen Monitor newspaper reported last week that the Edinburg City Attorney had submitted an AG opinion request on the legality of CBD products, but no such request has been received by OAG to date. Even if submitted, the AG does not have to provide an answer until long after the legislature has adjourned, so who knows what’s up with that. We are tracking more than 100 bills impacting various criminal drug laws in Texas, so what eventually will become law is anyone’s guess.

Now you know everything we know about this topic. Good luck making sense of it!

Bill tracks

All told, we are tracking 1,617 (21 percent) of the 7,524 bills and resolutions filed to date. In other words, more than one of every five pieces of legislation filed this session has the potential to impact your work or your local courthouses. To process that vast amount of information we use 42(!)different bill tracks. Three of those tracks—Penal Code (284 bills), Code of Criminal Procedure (387 bills), and miscellaneous “Bills to Watch” (95 bills)—are available near the top of our Legislative webpage and are updated daily. To give you some flavor of what the legislature is filing, here are a dozen other tracks (listed alphabetically):

• Bail and pre-trial release (44 bills filed)
• Death penalty (23)
• Drugs and controlled substances (104)
• DWI offenses (25)
• Family violence (64)
• Human trafficking (53)
• Juveniles (53)
• New crimes (189)
• New prosecutor duties/powers/obligations (61)
• Prosecutor-proposed bills (62)
• Punishment enhancements (103)
• Sex crimes (115)

If there is a subject or category of bills for which you would like to see the full list, please contact Shannon for more information. We cannot predict which of these bills will or won’t pass, but one thing we can safely say is that there will be plenty of new laws for us to talk about during our summer Legislative Update tour! 

Help wanted

In regard to bills suggested by prosecutors, two offices are seeking your support for bills filed this session:

• House Bill 3566 by Farrar (D-Houston) would improve the investigation and prosecution of domestic violence cases by facilitating the reimbursement of medical forensic exam costs performed on strangulation victims. To receive more information or help with that bill, please contact Carvana Cloud, Asst. Harris County DA, by email or at (713) 274-0214.
• House Bill 3561 by Farrar (D-Houston) creates a new offense of Continuous Sexual Assault to provide an enhanced punishment range for serial sexual assault offenders; it would apply to victims of all ages. To receive more information or help with that bill, contact Traci Bennett, Asst. Fort Bend County DA, by email or at (281) 341-4460. 

Scattershots

Here are some stories and articles we don’t have time to summarize, but they might be of interest to some of you:

• City of Edinburg seeks AG opinion on CBD oil (The Monitor)
• Yet more attempts to address the “debtor’s prison” cycle (Texas Observer)
• Is Dan Patrick standing in the way of medical marijuana expansion? (Texas Tribune)
• Governor Abbott is shifting the direction of bail bond reform efforts (Texas Tribune)
• Senators consider creating new “groping” crime (Austin American-Statesman)
• Lawmakers eye record-breaking withdrawal from rainy-day fund (Texas Tribune)

Floor action

The following bills have been calendared for consideration on the House floor next week before they take up the budget on Wednesday: HB 364 by Tinderholt (ignition interlock database and criminal offense), HB 1389 by S. Thompson (preferential treatment of defendants who are primary caregivers), and HB 428 by Shaheen (ban on solicitation of prison pen pals).

The following bills are eligible to be considered on the Senate floor at any point: SB 194 by Perry (creating offense of indecent assault) and SB 923 by Huffman (age restrictions on employees at sexually-oriented businesses).

These lists change daily, so click on this link to access the latest House Calendar or Senate Intent Calendar. 

Committee action

House bills approved by committees last week include: HB 51 by Canales (standardized forms created by OCA), HB 93 by Canales (magistrate’s name printed on signed orders), HB 98 (revenge porn fix), HB 101 by Canales (creating offense of false caller ID), HB 226 by Krause (revisions to crimes outside the Penal Code), HB 446 by Moody (legalizing knuckles weapons), and HB 667 by King (enhancing sexual assaults involving incest). These bills now go to the Calendars Committee, which decides which of them will be heard by the full House.

In the Senate, committees approved the following bills: SB 20 by Huffman (human trafficking omnibus bill), SB 306 by Watson (sobering centers), and SB 315 by Hughes (gas pump credit card skimmers). These bills are now eligible to be placed on the Senate Intent Calendar at the discretion of their authors.

Upcoming committee hearings

Here are summaries of the relevant committee notices posted so far:

Monday, March 25

House Elections – 8:00 a.m., Room E2.016

• HB 1419 by S. Thompson allowing felony probationers and parolees to vote

House Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence – 8:00 a.m., E2.026

• HB 2826 by G. Bonnen limiting contingent fee contracts by local governments
• HB 2251 by Capriglione to enjoin certain deceptive legal services advertising
• HB 2259 by R. Smith relating to uncollectible criminal fees and costs
• HB 2435 by R. Smith making confidential certain personal information of judges

Senate State Affairs – 9:00 a.m., Senate Chamber

• SB 19 by Hughes permitting firearms on certain multi-family residential or commercial property
• SB 324 by Huffman relating to the disposition of certain seized firearms under CCP Art. 18.191
• SB 1640 by Watson fixing the open meetings laws struck down in State v. Doyal (2/27/19)

House Criminal Jurisprudence – 2:00 p.m., E2.012

• HB 24 by Romero making FV assault in a child’s presence a state jail felony
• HB 37 by Minjarez increasing penalties for mail theft
• HB 156 by Moody relating to supervision of certain occupational license holders
• HB 480 by Schaefer authorizing prosecutors to voir dire potential grand jurors
• HB 534 by Geren expanding the scope of public safety employee treatment programs
• HB 934 by Shaheen increasing the penalty for prostitution with a trafficked person
• HB 1216 by S. Thompson facilitating orders of non-disclosure for certain sex trade victims
• HB 1240 by Y. Davis reducing penalties for certain habitual thefts
• HB 1319 by Moody relating to Class C judgments and appeals
• HB 1381 by Wray increasing penalties for aggravated assault on school property
• HB 1539 by Geren reducing penalties for tampering with evidence in a misdemeanor case
• HB 1609 by Tinderholt making grand jurors’ names confidential
• HB 1686 by R. Smith mandating the filing of certain protective orders by prosecutors
• HB 2058 by Hernandez authorizing forfeiture funds to be used for funding services for human trafficking victims
• HB 2260 by T. King authorizing some non-lawyer JPs to issue DWI blood search warrants
• HB 2360 by Moody clarifying when arrest affidavits and warrants become public
• HB 2613 by Frullo requiring certain asset forfeiture proceeds to be used for human trafficking victim services
• HB 2731 by Miller limiting probation for certain prostitution and trafficking offenses and expanding the definition of coercion for those crimes
• HB 2768 by Martinez-Fischer on occupational licenses for DPS surcharge suspensions
• HB 2789 by Morgan creating an offense of indecency by electronic image
• HB 2823 by VanDeaver increasing penalties for assault by threat vs. certain sports participants
• HB 2951 by Guillen adding disabled adults to the outcry hearsay exception statute
• HB 3109 by Murphy expanding access to criminal justice information databases
• HB 3206 by J. Gonzalez lowering prostitution penalties and barring prosecution of persons under 18

Tuesday, March 26

Wednesday, March 27

Thursday, March 28

If you want to learn more about a bill or find out how to get involved for or against it, contact Shannon for details.

Legislative rotation sign-up

We still have volunteer slots open for this session, so if you’ve thought of any new reasons to want to come to Austin to talk to your legislators, contact Shannon for details.

Award nominations due!

Now that the Grammys and Oscars are over, it’s time for the really BIG awards to be handed out! If you would like to nominate a TDCAA member for an Oscar Sherrell Award or the Suzanne McDaniel Award, check out this webpageand follow the instructions found there. Nominations are due April 12, 2019. 

Quotes of the Week

“[The lieutenant governor is] strongly opposed to weakening any laws against marijuana [and] remains wary of the various medicinal use proposals that could become a vehicle for expanding access to this drug.”

Alejandro Garcia, spokesman for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R-Houston), when asked for a position on various medical marijuana proposals filed this session.

“Even though it sounds like we’re halfway through, it just kind of shifts into a second gear. The halfway point really isn’t the halfway point. It’s really when things start picking up.”

State Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston), on the perceived slow pace of the legislature this session.

“[School finance and property tax reform] have to be passed. If they have to be passed in a special [session], they have to be passed in a special. I’m optimistic that we won’t have to do that. But I also told my landlord I need the place.”

Bettencourt, in the same article.

Pay raise curve ball

So much for that plan.

This past weekend, we learned that the work some of you had been doing to advocate for across-the-board judicial pay raises had fallen on deaf ears among those making the initial decisions on this matter. And sure enough, on Monday morning the House budget writers effectively removed from HB 1 the across-the-board 10-percent pay raise for judicial branch officers that had been in their baseline budget since last fall, and they replaced it with a contingency rider funding the chief justice’s judicial pay raise plan. That funding is “contingent” because it depends upon the ultimate passage of whatever is in HB 2384 by Leach (R-Plano) or its Senate companion, SB 387 by Huffman (R-Houston). As you know by now, those introduced bills include only judges, but at the hearing on his House bill yesterday, Chairman Leach laid out a committee substitute that includes elected prosecutors and county court-at-law judges in the bill. With those provisions added and with the demise of the HB 1 across-the-board pay raise, several prosecutors testified in favor of the committee substitute version of the bill (which we will refer to as CSHB 2384 to distinguish it from the filed bill that excluded prosecutors). That appears to be the only path for elected prosecutors to receive their first pay raise in 6 years, so like it or not, that’s your new plan.

Here is the most immediate problem with this new proposal: The fiscal note for the original version of HB 2384 was released before yesterday’s hearing, and even without the inclusion of prosecutors or county court-at-law judges, it weighed in at a hefty $47 million dollars for the biennium. Remember, the across-the-board 10 percent pay raise that used to be in HB 1 cost only about $30 million.

As we have mentioned before, the risk to prosecutors with this plan is that the Senate has yet to agree to add prosecutors, and it takes two to tango in the legislature. In other words, if CSHB 2384 gets to the Senate, that chamber can strip you back out and send a prosecutor-less bill back to the House without raises for you, at which point things will get very uncomfortable for everyone. But for now, your best hope for a pay raise is to (1) get in CSHB 2384 and (2) stay in CSHB 2384. On to Plan B!

There’s a lot more to this going on behind the scenes that we are not at liberty to put in writing, but if you have further questions, feel free to contact Rob. 

And now for something completely different

On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court handed down its opinion in Hillman v. Nueces County, an employment law case in which the court unanimously agreed that sovereign immunity protected the county against a lawsuit from a former assistant district attorney who was allegedly fired for disclosing alleged Brady information to the defense after being ordered not to disclose the information by his superiors. However, the justices clearly were not pleased with the outcome dictated by established law on immunity, and Justice Guzman wrote a separate concurrence suggesting that the Legislature consider waiving that immunity in some form or fashion to provide this kind of plaintiff with a monetary remedy—although she was noticeably vague about what that liability should look like. And that may not be surprising, considering that this case is ultimately one centering on employment law, not criminal discovery.

Despite the civil nature of this opinion (and the court that issued it), and that fact that the original offense in question pre-dated the effective date of the Michael Morton Act, Justice Guzman’s repeated references to that law and the circumstances that led to its passage immediately drew attention in the media, and some policymakers are no doubt already searching through existing bills to find a suitable vehicle for their pet criminal discovery ideas with this new opinions as the poster child (even if it bears little relation to their actual goal). Therefore, it is very important for you to read these two short opinions, digest them, and then let your legislators know what you think is an appropriate response. We don’t claim to be employment law experts, but we are fortunate to know several—yes, you know who you are—so if you want to be part of any potential solution at this stage of the session, contact Shannon ASAP. 

That’s enough drama for one update

We’ll have more updates for you later this week as events warrant. Until then, remember: If you aren’t at the table during a legislative session, it means you are on the menu.

Don’t look now, but this regular session is half-over as of Monday. That’s the good news; the bad news is that what follows next is the lawmaking equivalent of trying to shove three pounds of sausage into a two-pound bag. Viewer (and voter) discretion is advised.

Looking ahead

Your local students may be going on Spring Break, but legislators will not—as you will realize after reading this second of two updates’ worth of committee hearing notices. We already sent you information earlier this week on the judicial branch pay raise issue and other bills set for Monday; now we’ve got another 40 bills to tell you about that are set for hearings later in the week—and that’s just what we’ve cherry-picked from the various lists. All told, 105 of the bills we are tracking this session are set for a committee hearing during the first four days of next week! Get used to that, as the next seven weeks will be a sprint until they run up against the various deadlines imposed by House and Senate rules in early May. Hold on to your hats, people, it’s about to get stormy.

So much for “limited government”

Thanks to the good people at the Texas Legislative Library, we can tell you that the 86^th Legislature has filed 7,281 bills and joint resolutions as of this session’s filing deadline, which is the second-highest total in history. (To see that history in visual form, check out their handy graphics here.) We are current tracking more than 1,300 of those bills, but it will take us a few more days to review them all. We’ll share some subject-specific lists with you next week if, for instance, you want to check up on all the bills that would impact DWI cases, firearms prosecutions, create new crimes, etc.

Lite Guv’s Top 30

The main man in the Senate released a list of his 30 priority bills this session, which you can view at this link (with further links to the bills themselves in that document). Among those you might find interesting are:

• SB 9 by Hughes relating to election integrity
• SB 11 by Taylor improving school security (+ more than $500 million to fund it!)
• SB 20 by Huffman, the omnibus human trafficking/sex trade bill this session
• SB 28 by Huffman limiting local government contingent fee agreements for legal services
• SB 29 by Hall prohibiting local governmental entities from spending public funds to interact with the Legislature with or through an association or similar entity.

Look for all of the bills on this Top 30 list to start flying through the Senate. In fact, some—like SB 20 on human trafficking—have already been heard and voted from committee within a week of being filed. The rest will soon follow suit, so if you have concerns about any of them, don’t lollygag.

Scattershots

Here are some stories and articles we don’t have time to summarize, but they might be of interest to some of you:

• Call to end cash bail in Bexar County intensifies (Texas Public Radio)
• Texas Senator proposes moving all TJJD youth to former adult facility (Texas Tribune)
• No one’s really sure how to regulate this [CBD-oil] hemp food craze (Pew Stateline)

Floor action

Now that the 60-day filing deadline has passed, both chambers can start debating and passing non-emergency bills from the floor. Check this space in future updates for more news.

Committee action

Bills approved last week by committees include: HB 892 by Kuempel (county regulation of eight-liner game rooms), SB 295 by Lucio (unlawful restraint of dogs), SB 363 (restricting certain law enforcement access to Prescription Monitoring Program information), SB 476 (municipal regulation of dogs), and SB 666 (reporting offenses that invalidate firearm possession).

Upcoming committee hearings

Here are summaries of the relevant committee notices posted so far:

Monday, March 18

(see our previous update, plus these additions …)

Senate State Affairs – 9:00 a.m., Senate Chamber

• SB 9 by Hughes on election integrity
• SB 21 by Huffman increasing the smoking/vaping age from 18 to 21
• SB 29 by Hall restricting local officials’ ability to lobby the legislature
• SB 346 by Zaffirini revising court cost revenue allocations

Tuesday, March 19

House Human Services – 10:30 a.m. or upon adjournment, Room E2.030

• HB 2134 by Klick prohibiting certain medical consultations in child abuse/neglect investigations

Senate Criminal Justice – 1:30 p.m., Room E1.016

• SB 194 by Perry creating the offense of indecent assault of an adult
• SB 306 by Watson authorizing the release of intoxicated persons to a sobering center
• SB 315 by Hughes adding credit card skimming to engaging in organized criminal activity
• SB 2191 by Whitmire prohibiting pretrial detainees from being housed in out-of-state jails

Wednesday, March 20

House Homeland Security & Public Safety – 8:00 a.m., Room E2.016

• HB 1168 by Anchia creating an exception for possessing a weapon in an airport
• HB 282 by Neave requiring training on trauma-informed interviewing of sex crime victims
• HB 2146 by Kacal authorizing municipal prosecutors to carry handguns
• HB 1660 by Herrero requiring training on strangulation evidence in family violence cases
• HB 265 by Blanco requiring data collection about immigration status in traffic stops

House Higher Education – 8:00 a.m., Room E1.014

• HB 1482 by Lozano revising and expanding the criminal offense of hazing

House State Affairs – 10:30 a.m. or upon adjournment, Room E2.014

• HB 1232 by Guillen creating the Human Trafficking Prevention Coordinating Council
• HB 1655 by Hunter limiting the withholding of DOBs under the PIA
• HB 1700 by Hunter making various information held by a current or former government officer or employee public information
• HB 2191 by Capriglione, an omnibus PIA bill
• HB 2192 by Capriglione on the assessment of litigation costs and attorney’s fees in PIA cases

House Juvenile Justice & Family Issues – 10:30 a.m. or upon adjournment, Room E2.012

• HB 1189 by Ja. Johnson imposing community service in lieu of fines for certain young offenders
• HB 1332 by Israel repealing local governments’ authority to issue juvenile curfews
• HB 1760 by White relating to confidential, sealed, and destroyed juvenile records
• HB 2027 by Bowers informing a juvenile and his family regarding the sealing of records
• HB 2343 by Dutton expanding the “Romeo & Juliet” defense to five years for high schoolers
• HB 3195 by Wu relating to certain juveniles committed to TJJD at sanction level six

Senate Veterans Affairs and Border Security – 1:30 p.m. or upon adjournment, Room 2E.20

• SB 616 by Birdwell, the DPS sunset bill

Thursday, March 21

House Corrections – 8:00 a.m., Room E2.030

• HB 1452 by S. Thompson reducing the wait before eligibility for an order of non-disclosure
• HB 1753 by Allen accelerating eligibility for early release from parole supervision
• HB 2158 by White creating a work-release program for prison inmates
• HB 2502 by Moody imposing a jail term as a condition of probation for fatal hit-and-runs
• HB 2559 by Bowers requiring a summons issue for most parole violators with new offenses
• HB 2758 by Hernandez eliminating probation and deferred adjudication for certain human trafficking and prostitution-related crimes
• HB 3120 by G. Bonnen related to the stacking of certain sex crime sentences
• HB 3296 by Allen increasing diligent participation credits for certain state jail felony inmates

If you want to learn more about a bill or find out how to get involved for or against it, contact Shannon for details.

Legislative rotation sign-up

Thanks to Ector County DA Bobby Bland and Oldham County C&DA Kent Birdsong for coming to Austin last week and riding herd on several bills. We still have volunteer slots open for this session, so if you’ve found any new reasons to want to talk to your legislators, contact Shannon for details on how to get involved.

Quotes of the Week

“Our customers who come in say they don’t care what the district attorney says and they say they need the product.”

Trey Phillips, a CBD oil retailer (and former Fort Worth police officer), on whether a recent  advisory about the illegality of unregulated CBD productswould impact his business in Tarrant County.

“Like it or not, you get one bite at this apple, and you do not want to do anything to cause harm to this case, that may cause a reversal or a mistrial. Your goal right now is to get justice. That’s primary.”

Andy Kahan, director of victims services for Crime Stoppers of Houston, on how he explains to murder victims’ family members why information about those cases are not public before trial.

“We have 11 doctor shifts a day and most of the doctors tell me it’s hard to go a whole shift without seeing at least one scooter injury.”

Dr. Christopher Ziebell, ER director for Dell Seton Medical Center at UT-Austin, when asked about the increase in injuries among urban electric scooter riders.

“Court is one of those places where facts still matter.”

Federal judge Amy Berman Jackson, during her recent sentencing of Paul Manafort.

Due to a committee schedule that does not lend itself to Friday afternoon updates for those wishing to participate in committee hearings on Mondays (too late) and Thursdays (too soon), we will start sending these missives as events require in order to provide you with as much notice as possible of important events at the Capitol. (And there are some hot-button issues coming up next week!)

Judicial branch pay raise: Action item

The House version of the chief justice’s judicial pay raise bill, HB 2384 by Chairman Leach (R-Plano), will be heard in his Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee on Monday, March 18th. (See below for more details; click this link for a  list of committee members.) This may be your only opportunity to testify in a public hearing on a potential pay raise for prosecutors, so read on if this is an issue you care about.

The situation on the ground that we have described in previous updates has changed in two ways:

1. The House General Appropriations Act, HB 1, is nearing completion in the House Appropriations Committee with an across-the-board pay raise intact. Specifically, it contains a judicial and prosecutor pay raise of 10 percent, with another five percent left pending for future discussion. No other bill is required to pass to put that change take effect (as long as it stays in HB 1), which is why it is the simplest, easiest, and fairest option in our opinion. House Bill 1 will be debated on the House floor in two weeks.
2. The other option is the chief’s two-step plan requiring a change to HB 1 and the passage of the judges’ separate bill. Chairman Leach has offered to include prosecutors in his version of the bill, but only if prosecutors want to be included. We presume those changes would look similar to the judges’ proposed longevity-style pattern: Newly-elected felony prosecutors would start at a base salary of $140,000 and increase by ten percent every four years for 12 years ($154,000, then $168,000, then $182,000) effective September 1, 2019 (and applied retroactively). There also might be some increase of the county attorney supplement as well, but we have not seen any language for any of that yet. And this plan also requires the House to de-fund the across-the-board raise and replace it with this targeted, tenure-based system, plus find an additional $8–10 million to include prosecutors. That may be more lucrative for some of you if all of that can be pulled off, but (in our opinion) it is also riskier.

All that being said, the situation remains unchanged in one very important way: Senator Huffman (R-Houston) has not changed her position on refusing to allow prosecutors into her Senate version of the chief justice’s bill. This is why TDCAA’s Legislative Committee originally recommended that prosecutors support the across-the-board raises contained in HB 1 as the most viable path to getting a raise this session. As long as the Senate author—and likely member of the state budget conference committee that ultimately decides whether or how to pay for such changes—continues to limit the bill to only long-tenured judges, all bets are off in the Senate and in any eventual conference committee (which meets behind closed doors and does not permit public input).

That is a short summary of the current situation. Rob or Shannon can provide more information as needed, but TDCAA is not in a position to speak for you on your pay—only you can do that. Monday may be your “speak now or forever hold your peace” moment, so Rob will be at the TDCAA offices at 6:00 p.m. Sunday to meet with anyone interested in coming to Austin to testify for or against HB 2384 (more committee details are below). If you have thoughts or questions before then, contact Rob. 

Longevity pay status

On a much less dramatic note, the Senate followed Sen. Huffman’s lead and gave its blessing to using a one-time infusion of general revenue funds to cover the shortfall in assistant prosecutor longevity pay for this current fiscal year. That proposal—as part of SB 500 by Nelson (R-Flower Mound)—now goes to the House for final approval. That supplemental appropriation bill will be reviewed by the House Appropriations Committee on Monday, and all signs look good for this short-term fix for the longevity pay revenue gap to be approved. Once that is done, attention can shift to ensuring a similar patch for the upcoming biennium or—even better—a new, continuing revenue source that avoids the need for repeated fixes like this.

Upcoming committee hearings

Here are summaries of the relevant committee notices posted for next week (so far). There are plenty of interesting topics set for Monday, so feel free to weigh in on multiple topics if you come to Austin. Click on the committee name for a full agenda and more details on each bill; Shannon can give you the inside scoop on some of them as well.

Monday, March 18

House Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence – 10:00 a.m., Room E2.026 (partial list)

• HB 2384 by Leach, the chief justice’s judge-only (as of now) pay raise plan
• HB 598 by Price funding the training of certain part-time magistrates and associate judges
• HB 2955 by Price moving oversight of specialty courts to the Office of Court Administration
• HB 881 by C. Bell authorizing the parents of a deceased adult to view the body before autopsy
• HB 2737 by Wu providing judicial guidance regarding certain CPS and juvenile cases
• HB 2068 by Nevarez exempting certain tribal government/council members from jury service
• HB 900 by Israel creating a civil infraction for smoking tobacco in a vehicle with a child inside
• HB 439 by Shaheen limiting civil lawsuits against persons reporting suspicious behavior
• HB 883 by Thierry regulating internet use to obtain certain ID information of an elderly person

House Criminal Jurisprudence – 1:30 p.m., Room E2.012 (Link to committee membership list)

• HB 85 by M. Gonzalez applying the “Romeo & Juliet” defense to alleged same-sex conduct
• HB 352 by Blanco regulating law enforcement access to cell site information and the use of cell site simulators
• HB 353 by Blanco regulating law enforcement access to cell site information
• HB 442 by Morgan increasing the statute of limitations for abandoning/endangering a child
• HB 549 by Canales granting criminal parties an objection to the appointment of a visiting judge
• HB 601 by Price imposing reporting requirements related to defendants with intellectual disability
• HB 940 by Davis regulating the unlawful restraint of a dog
• HB 1030 by Moody changing the vote requirement for special issues in capital cases
• HB 1139 by S. Thompson creating a pre-trial determination of intellectual disability in capital cases
• HB 1936 by Rose creating a pre-trial determination of “serious mental illness” in capital cases
• HB 1223 by VanDeaver encouraging prosecutions for interference with child custody
• HB 1279 by Allen correcting statutory jury instructions regarding parole eligibility
• HB 1357 by Wu creating an offense for failure to report sex crimes or impair their investigation
• HB 1499 by Metcalf directing unclaimed property to certain crime victims
• HB 1996 by Leman requiring documents of certain deportation admonishments

If you want to learn more about a bill or find out how to get involved for or against it, contact Shannon for details.

Future updates

We’ll send out a more standard recap of this week’s events tomorrow or Monday. Please bear with us as we work out a more useful schedule for these updates. All of this is part of our efforts to go the extra mile to get you the information you need to be effective advocates at the capitol for yourselves, your offices, and your communities.

As you read this, hundreds of bill ideas are dying a quiet death by not being filed before today’s 6:00 p.m. deadline. We’ll have a more complete run-down of bill filings next week, but feel free to pour one out this weekend for all of the good ideas that won’t get any love from the legislature this session.

Quick update on some hot button issues

Here is a very brief update on some of the most high-profile issues we’ve been following for you this session.

Bail bond reform: The Lite Gov finally referred SB 628 by Whitmire (D-Houston) to the author’s own committee. (Such delays usually indicate a rough road ahead for such a bill, but who knows.) Elsewhere, Rep. Kacal (R-Bryan) filed HB 2020, which tracks Governor Abbott’s recommendations to limit bonds for more serious offenders, including requiring district court judges to personally review those cases. Both bills are named “The Damon Allen Act” after the same DPS trooper gunned down last year, so … yeah … that’s awkward.

Grand jury changes: Senator Whitmire (D-Houston) filed SB 1492, which is the same as Rep. Thompson’s HB 2398 (recapped last week) except the new Senate version does not (yet) include the House bill’s provisions on early discovery and lawsuits against prosecutors.

DWI deferred adjudication: SB 106 by Menendez (D-San Antonio) and its companion, HB 3582 by Murr (R-Junction), are similar to last session’s legislation. Comal County CDA Jennifer Tharp is once again spearheading efforts to get this across the finish line. If you would like to help her and want updates on the bill’s progress, email her at [email protected]. 

Intellectual disability and the death penalty: Expect HB 1139 by S. Thompson (D-Houston) to get a hearing as soon as the week of March 18th. Some prosecutors have suggested changes to provisions on the timing of the pre-trial hearing, a right to appeal, and the definition of ID, but it’s too soon to tell how that will all shake out.

DRP repeal: Multiple bills have been filed to repeal the Driver Responsibility Program, but the ones most likely to pass (if any) are HB 2048 by Zerwas (R-Richmond) or its identical companion, SB 918 by Huffman (R-Houston). The initial problem with the filed versions of those bills is that they merely replace the current massive DWI-related surcharges with similarly massive mandatory DWI state fines, making it even less likely anyone will ever plead to those offenses. However, this discussion is far from over, so keep watching them for changes as they move through the system.

State jail reform: We haven’t had time to process various reform proposals on this topic because they are all being filed at the deadline, which does not bode well for the fate of any of them. More on this in future weeks.

Judicial branch pay update

On Monday, the full House Appropriations Committee adopted its subcommittee’s recommendation to include in HB 1 a 10-percent across-the-board pay raise for various elected judges and prosecutors (plus another five-percent increase they could consider later, at an additional cost of ~$12 million). That continues to be the best chance for elected prosecutors to receive increased compensation this session. We are getting feedback from the Capitol that many of you are taking the initiative to make that happen, but if you have not already done so, please refer to our past recommendations on this topic and call or email Rob if you have any questions.

Elsewhere, the Senate approved SB 3 by Nelson (R-Flower Mound), an emergency item that gives classroom teachers and librarians a $5,000 annual pay raise. However, that proposal is expected to find less favor in the House, which prefers to push funds down to school districts without specific earmarks. In light of that disagreement, we’ll let you decide for yourselves whether you think both chambers will be amenable to granting as much as $42,000 in raises to certain long-tenured judges, as some of them have requested. 

“Texas Prosecution 101”

Every few years we have to dust off and re-issue our little white paper on who prosecutes what under the Texas Constitution. We call it our “Prosecution 101” paper, the latest copy of which you can find on our website here. You might want to keep it handy for this next part.

If you recall, over the summer the Senate State Affairs Committee considered whether the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) should be tasked with prosecuting human trafficking (and abortion-related) crimes. The committee’s conclusion, as stated in its interim report, was to support concurrent jurisdiction for OAG and local prosecutors in trafficking cases—but without specifying if it meant original concurrent jurisdiction for OAG, or merely the existing arrangement we enjoy now. Then we told you earlier this session that OAG was asking for more than a dozen new employees to investigate and prosecute human trafficking (more on that below). And last week, yet another piece of the potential puzzle was filed: SB 1257 by Huffman (R-Houston) could allow OAG to independently investigate human trafficking cases in your communities and independently prosecute those cases in your courthouses.

As filed, SB 1257 gives OAG original criminal jurisdiction in human trafficking cases that: 1) occur in more than one county; 2) occur in Texas as well as another state or country; or 3) are facilitated by the use of the U.S. mail, email, telephone, fax, the internet, or a wireless communication between counties or a Texas county and another state or country. (In other words, the AG will have original criminal jurisdiction in pretty much every human trafficking case.) Furthermore, if a human trafficking case *is* limited to a single county, the bill requires the local prosecutor to notify OAG within 14 days of becoming aware of that conduct and, if the local prosecutor decides not to pursue charges, you get another 14 days to notify OAG of that fact—upon which news OAG can then step in and prosecute a case you declined.

How does that strike you?

Here are our initial thoughts. First, some prosecutors have already raised concerns about the constitutionality of that arrangement. (See the white paper for details.) Second, Texas prosecutors have always enjoyed a good working relationship with OAG prosecutors, so rather than focus on issues of jurisdiction, authority, or a race to the courthouse, we think you’d prefer to talk about how you can get the most out of the existing partnership with OAG to ensure effective investigations and prosecutions. And third, there is probably a good reason why the state doesn’t already have two independent prosecuting offices with the authority to represent the State in the same cases, in part because it can only lead to trouble down the road as soon as the defense bar realizes that the first witness they should call in any case declined at the local level is the local DA who had reservations about the case. (Won’t those be some fun Brady hearings?)

All that being said, the initial language in SB 1257 is just that—a starting point for various interested parties to begin talks over how best to improve the state’s response to this issue that has captured the attention of policymakers. (Ditto for its identical House companion, HB 3979 by Leach [R-Plano], filed yesterday). It will be up to you to educate them on what the most appropriate response should be. 

Human trafficking funding

While we are on this topic, note that the Senate State Affairs Committee recently voted out SB 72 by Nelson (R-Flower Mound) to create a new Human Trafficking Prevention Coordinating Council consisting of various legislative and executive branch members and chaired by the attorney general. Among the purposes of this council will be to devise a statewide strategy for combatting human trafficking and to oversee state expenditures on that topic—up to $89 million spread among seven state agencies to hire personnel to investigate, prosecute, and prevent trafficking, if the Senate gets its way.

But across the rotunda, the House Appropriations Committee appears to be taking a wait-and-see approach to financing more human trafficking prevention efforts. On Monday, that committee moved all $75 million of its proposed human trafficking appropriations to Article XI, also known as the “wish list,” in their proposed budget (HB 1). That amount includes funding for 13 additional AG prosecutors and staff, 41 TABC agents, and 204 DPS officers who were to be assigned to new anti-human trafficking and gang task forces. These items aren’t dead, they are merely tabled, but this means they could become points of negotiation with the Senate budget writers when the final details are hammered out in late May.

Up(date) in smoke

The House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee took testimony earlier this week on HB 63 by Moody (D-El Paso) to change possession of less than one ounce of marijuana into a civil infraction. Several hours of testimony on the bill can be boiled down to this: Some law enforcement agency witnesses think marijuana should remain a crime, other public witnesses think marijuana should be something less than a crime, and no one—not one witness—talked about the actual mechanics of the bill or how it would work in real life. This is a good example of how a policy narrative can sometimes overwhelm the nuts-and-bolts details of an issue—but remember, should something like this pass, those details will be left up to y’all to sort out. And while its fate in the Senate is cloudy, it does have some bi-partisan support in the House, so now is a good time to read the bill and what it does or doesn’t do. Look for this committee to take up various other marijuana-related bills later in the session—including proposals to make possession of small amounts a Class C misdemeanor—but for now, this is the bill for marijuana reform in Texas this session.

Scattershots

• Hemp farms in Texas? Ag Commissioner among backers (KUT News)
• Immigration, border security top voters’ worries (Texas Tribune)
• Guns are popular in Texas, but so are “red flag” laws (Texas Tribune) 

Committee action

The bills we told you about last week are all now pending in their House committees, most of which seem to be in no hurry to spit them back out. Among the bills did receive approval in a committee are: HB 234 by Krause (limiting local regulation of kids’ lemonade stands), HB 448 by Turner (penalties for failing to use rear-facing child car seats), SB 40 by Zaffirini (court proceedings following disasters and evacuations), SB 71 by Nelson (telemedicine for sexual assault exams), SB 73 by Nelson (protecting personal information of judges), SB 201 by Huffman (penalty enhancements during natural disasters), SB 341 by Huffman (ban on appointing non-prosecutors as attorneys pro tem), and SB 415 by Huffman (no plea in absentia in Class C family violence cases). 

Upcoming committee hearings

Here are summaries of the relevant committee notices posted for next week (so far).

Monday, March 11

House Criminal Jurisprudence – 2:00 p.m., Room E2.012

• HB 64 by Canales authorizing expunction of most misdemeanor convictions after five years
• HB 121 by Swanson creating “oral warning” defenses to 30.06 and 30.07 trespasses
• HB 176 by Canales prohibiting waivers of nondisclosure and expunction rights
• HB 465 by White relating to fee and cost waivers
• HB 566 by White expanding eligibility for orders of nondisclosure
• HB 691 by White expanding eligibility for orders of nondisclosure for repeat offenders
• HB 756 by Wu restricting the State’s right to jury punishment
• HB 869 by Hefner relating to organized criminal activity involving credit card skimmers
• HB 902 by Landgraf increasing punishments for assaulting pregnant women
• HB 929 by Anchia creating an admonishment for military service/discharge
• HB 1202 by Collier excluding certain rent-to-own violations from theft of service
• HB 1625 by K. Bell creating the offense of false report of misconduct against first responders
• HB 1661 by Herrero clarifying the scope of and venue for continuous violence against the family

Tuesday, March 12

House Licensing & Administrative Procedures – 8:00 a.m., Room E2.028

• HB 1544 by Raymond legalizing fantasy sports contests

Senate Criminal Justice – 1:30 p.m., Room E1.016

• Organizational meeting; invited testimony only.

Wednesday, March 13

House Homeland Security & Public Safety – 8:00 a.m., Room E2.016

• HB 629 by Landgraf creating a protective order registry
• HB 830 by Israel authorizing the release of intoxicated persons to sobering centers
• HB 1145 by Krause repealing the Driver Responsibility Program
• HB 1544 by Chen Button relating to the execution of a DWI blood search warrant

Thursday, March 14

House Corrections – 8:00 a.m., Room E2.030 (not posted yet)

If you want to learn more about a bill or find out how to get involved for or against it, contact Shannon for details. 

New bills

To give you an idea of the volume of bills being filed before today’s deadline, the past four days have seen 264, 350, 532, and 911 bills filed, respectively. Thus, it should come as no surprise that we are still hundreds of bills behind in our reading. As of now we are tracking 1,172 (18% percent) of the 6,396 bills filed through yesterday. Please remember that if you call to ask about a bill by number and it doesn’t immediately register with us. (Heck, our own kids’ names no longer register with us after having to review all these bills!)

Next week

Now that the bill-filing deadline is over, legislators can focus on committee hearings and doing something on the floor other than recognizing visiting dignitaries and congratulating high school football teams for winning a state championship. (We have enough of those to last us at least half a session, but we’ll save our rant about the UIL’s everyone-gets-a-championship-trophy dilution of our state sport for another day.)

Legislative rotation sign-up

Thanks to Nacogdoches County Attorney John Fleming and Asst. CA Stephanie Stephens for coming to Austin this past week and riding herd on several bills. We still have a few slots open for later this session, so if you’ve found any new reasons to want to talk to your legislators, contact Shannon for details on how to get involved. 

Quotes of the Week

“What is illegal in the real world must be illegal in the digital world, and this legislation is a first step in the right direction in adding that accountability.”

Whitney Wolfe Herd, CEO of Bumble (an online dating app catering to women), in support of HB 2789 by Meyer (R-Dallas), which would make it a Class C misdemeanor to send unsolicited lewd electronic images to another person.

“I just think in 2019, as a country, we don’t need to be ‘springing forward’ and ‘falling back’ just because we did it in World War I to save energy. We just need to pick a time and stick with it.”

State Sen. Jose Menendez (D-San Antonio), in an article discussing his SB 190, which would end Texas’ participation in daylight savings time. [Don’t forget to set your clocks forward on Sunday!]

This week various legislative committees will discuss marijuana decriminalization, incest, the legalization of eight-liner game rooms, and more. Who says civics is boring? Read on for details.

Judicial branch pay update

We sent everyone an update on judicial pay issues yesterday. If you did not receive it, contact Shannon for a copy.

House Appropriations

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Articles I, IV and V chaired by Rep. Oscar Longoria (D-Mission) held a series of working group meetings over the past two weeks to hammer out the final details on the budgets for various general government agencies, the judiciary, and the public safety agencies. We won’t know the outcome until Monday, when the subcommittee reports to the full Appropriations Committee and seeks a formal vote on the subcommittee’s proposals. We won’t have access to the subcommittees working documents until then, but some items that are still pending include: additional funding for visiting judges; additional staff positions for various courts; and $12 million to fund an additional five percent across-the-board judicial pay raise on top of the 10 percent raise already in the baseline budget. We’ll continue to share relevant budget news as the session progresses, including what happens in the Senate Finance subcommittees (which are moving a littler slower than their House counterparts).

Assistant prosecutor longevity pay

Not much new to report. We want to thank Senator Joan Huffman (R-Houston) and Finance Committee Chairwoman Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound) for voicing their support for the program and seeking ways to get it on a solid footing going forward. We are monitoring a patch for the final quarter of FY 2019 and a fix for the FY 2020-21 biennium shortfalls. No word yet on a permanent solution, but we are hopeful legislators will identify a reliable funding stream in the near future.

Grand jury “reform” bill filed

Check out HB 2398 by Rep. Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston). It’s the sequel to last session’s HB 2640 by Thompson (and then-companion SB 1424, which got watered down before dying in the House). Ms. Thompson has been pushing for an attorney in the grand jury off and on since 1991, but this is perhaps the most far-reaching bill she has filed on this topic. Here are some details:

• Every witness or target of an investigation is entitled to a lawyer in the grand jury
• A target is entitled to full discovery before appearing before a grand jury
• All witness questioning and testimony must be recorded
• If a person is no-billed, a second grand jury may not investigate or return an indictment against that previously investigated person absent new, material evidence
• The State must present all exculpatory evidence to the grand jury
• Regardless of whether a grand jury returns a true bill or no bill, the target/defendant can sue the prosecutor for attorney’s fees and other related expenses which shall be awarded if the court finds that “the position of the prosecutor was vexatious, frivolous, or in bad faith.”

Prosecutors’ views on this proposal last session were consistent with prosecutors’ views over the past three decades: Granting a witness or target of an investigation the absolute right to have an attorney in the grand jury room is bad public policy, so there is really nothing prosecutors can agree to or negotiate. Only time will tell how interested this legislature is in considering that policy once again, but if this issue is important to you, be sure to read the text of the bill and dust off that well-worn copy of your talking points.

Tap the brakes

Some of you may have heard from your clerks that TDCAA is recommending they stop collecting the time payment fee authorized by Local Gov’t Code §133.103, which was partially struck down by the 14^th Court of Appeals in Johnson v. State (issued Feb. 4, 2019) (for details, see our case summaries entry for that week). We’ll spare you the Telephone Game explanation for how things got confused, but know that TDCAA has *not* made any such recommendation (nor has the Office of Court Administration). No mandate has issued from the courts in this matter. Furthermore, the State Prosecuting Attorney’s Office will likely seek a motion for rehearing and, failing that, petition the Court of Criminal Appeals for further review. This court cost and others like it are also at play in some bills before the Legislature, so our wisest counsel right now is to let things play out to the end before taking action. If you have further questions about this, please contact Shannon or Stephanie at TDCAA. 

Scattershots

Here are some stories and articles we don’t have time to summarize, but they might be of interest to some of you:

• Where control of the next Texas Legislature will be decided (Texas Tribune)
• Under the Dome (video): Where lawmakers go to wine, dine, and deal (Texas Tribune)
• What do cops want from lawmakers? (KERA News)
• Growing support for Texas to decriminalize marijuana (Texas Tribune)

Floor action

Bills on issues designated as an “emergency” are now reaching the Senate floor, as SB 3 by Nelson (R-Flower Mound) to give classroom teachers a pay raise and SB 10 by Nelson to create a Texas Mental Health Care Consortium are both on the Senate calendar for Monday. (Not on that calendar is SB 2, the property tax reform bill, which currently lacks the votes it needs to be considered under the Senate’s three-fifths rule.) It will be several weeks before any non-emergency items can be debated on the House or Senate floor, but take this as yet another sign that the legislature is finally getting to work in earnest.

Committee action

The bills we told you about last week are all now pending in their House committees, where the usual practice is to lay out a bill, debate it, and then let it simmer for a week before taking an up-or-down vote on it. Some bills heard yesterday on short notice in Senate State Affairs were also left pending; we’ll report anything that comes out of that committee when it happens.

Upcoming committee hearings

Here are summaries of the relevant committee notices posted for next week (so far). Click on the underlined hyperlink for a full listing of each notice, including bill information (such as the actual text of a proposal) that can be accessed by clicking on any bill number in the notice.

Monday, March 4

House Criminal Jurisprudence – 2:00 p.m., Room E2.012

• HB 27 by Canales increasing penalties for assaulting a federal officer
• HB 63 by Moody making possession of < 1 oz. of marijuana a civil infraction
• HB 86 by Martinez creating the offense of reckless discharge of a firearm
• HB 446 by Moody removing knuckles from the list of prohibited weapons
• HB 521 by Dutton requiring additional information in the charging instrument for resisting arrest
• HB 667 by K. King increasing the penalty for sexual assault involving incest
• HB 760 by Wu increasing the penalty for theft of delivered packages (aka “porch piracy”)
• HB 1028 by Guillen increasing the penalties for certain offenses during disasters

House Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence – 2:00 p.m., Room E2.026

• HB 354 by Herrero exempting fire fighters and police officers from jury duty

Tuesday, March 5

House Licensing and Administrative Procedures – 8:00 a.m., Room E2.028

• HB 78 & HJR 18 by Raymond authorizing local option elections to legalize certain eight-liner operations
• HB 892 by Kuempel authorizing a county to regulate and tax local game rooms

House Business & Industry – 10:30 a.m., Room E2.016

• HB 427 by Shaheen basing the penalty for price tag tampering on the value of the tagged item

Wednesday, March 6

House Homeland Security & Public Safety – 8:00 a.m., Room E2.016

• HB 8 by Neave expanding the collection and testing of rape kits; changing statutes of limitation
• HB 616 by Neave relating to payment for rape kit collection and storage
• HB 979 by Hernandez authorizing the collection of DNA from certain defendants
• HB 1177 by Phelan authorizing the carrying of a handgun during a declared state of disaster

If you want to learn more about a bill or find out how to get involved for or against it, contact Shannon for details.

New bills to watch

We are now tracking 1011 (23% percent) of the 4,352 bills filed through yesterday. Here is another list highlighting some of the more interesting bills filed in the past few days:

• HB 15 by S. Thompson, the omnibus human trafficking bill
• HB 2158 by White authorizing work release for certain TDCJ inmates
• HB 2200 by S. Thompson narrowing the scope of drug-free zone enhancements
• HB 2260 by T. King authorizing some non-lawyer JPs to issue blood search warrants in DWIs
• HB 2303 by Moody narrowing the definition of “bet” to exclude fantasy sports wagering
• HB 2339 by Meza requiring bond conditions in violent offenses to be entered in TCIC
• HB 2360 by Moody defining “execute” for the purposes of making arrest affidavits public
• HB 2421 by R. Smith authorizing certain judges to issue search warrants for wireless devices
• HB 2432 by Raney creating a “Good Samaritan” defense to possession of controlled substances
• HB 2481 by Metcalf authorizing deferred adjudication for DWI offenders in veterans’ courts
• HB 2491 by Wu prohibiting the transfer of juveniles to TJJD for state jail felony offenses
• SB 989 by Watson imposing jail time as a condition of probation for hit-and-run deaths
• SB 993 by Powell increasing penalties for family violence assault in the presence of a child
• SB 1018 by Alvarado requiring family violence offenders to surrender firearms
• SB 1125 by Hinojosa authorizing video teleconference testimony by a forensic analyst
• SB 1257 by Huffman authorizing the AG to unilaterally prosecute human trafficking cases
• SB 1305 by Huffman increasing penalties for assaulting a pregnant woman

To read any bill, go to https://capitol.texas.gov/, enter the bill number in the appropriate field, and click “go”—then on the subsequent webpage, select the tab at the top of the page for the information (history, bill text, actions, authors, etc.) you want. And as always, you can contact Shannon or Rob if you are having trouble finding the information you seek.

Next week

After lagging behind past sessions’ rate of bill filing, legislators made up for it with a vengeance this past week by filing more than 1,000 bills, and they will continue that torrid pace by filing 2,000–3,000 more bills before next Friday’s deadline. (As a result, we will waive the white flag and give up trying to highlight individual bill filings in the list above.) Meanwhile, committees will continue to increase their workload and start working into the evenings, so if you see any of our family members out and about, be sure to tell them we’re still alive and manning our posts at the capitol.

Legislative rotation sign-up

If you are interested in coming to Austin this session, please contact Shannon for details on how to get involved. We have several slots available for prosecutors to come to Austin and help craft the laws and appropriations that directly impact you, so check your calendar and find a good time to come to hang out with us.

Domestic Violence Seminar

Registration is now open for TDCAA’s 2019 Domestic Violence Seminar. Whether you are new to prosecution or a seasoned hand, this course will cover practical skills you need to do your job today. From intake to advocacy, this is domestic violence training developed for Texas prosecutors and presented by Texas prosecutors. Join us in Georgetown, Texas, from April 9th to the 12th for this exciting training opportunity. For more information, please click here.

Quotes of the Week

“The Court of Criminal Appeals has wrestled with this issue for the 30 years I’ve been a lawyer. It will be good to have some finality on the topic.”

Harris County DA Kim Ogg, in an article discussing whether the U.S. Supreme Court’s second ruling in the Bobby James Moore case will prod the state legislature into adopting a statutory scheme for determining intellectual disability in capital cases. [For legislation already filed on that topic, see HB 1139 or its companion, SB 418.]

“Yet another perfectly good statute falls today, adding fuel to the claims that this court is often too quick to reject the considered will of our state’s Legislative Department.”

Court of Criminal Appeals judge Kevin Yeary, in his dissent to the majority opinion in State v. Doyal that struck down part of the state’s Open Meetings Act for being unconstitutionally vague this week.

“I love it because it’s driving some people crazy and we’re having a blast working together.”

Speaker Dennis Bonnen (R-Angleton), describing his relationship with the governor and lieutenant governor in a radio interview