Texas Criminal Legislative Update: March 23, 2015
The 84th Texas Legislative Session is in full-swing in Austin, and you may want to know what new laws our legislators are considering and which old laws might get a facelift.
Two controversial gun bills were passed out of the Texas Senate this week, along party lines. SB 11 by Senator Brian Birdwell (R-Granbury) would allow licensed students on public university campuses to carry concealed handguns; private universities would be permitted to opt out. SB 17 by Senator Craig Estes (R-Grandbury) would allow open carry in public by licensed gun owners.
This Session Senator John Whitmire (D-Houston) has filed two important bills related to juveniles and the justice system. SB 106 aims to clean up previously-passed juvenile truancy legislation and allow students to have multiple truancy cases dismissed or expunged. This bill is scheduled for hearing in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee on Tuesday, March 24. SB 1630 would allow judges to send juvenile offenders to regional centers rather than a youth correctional facility, leading to increased treatment, increased savings and a shrinking lockup system by 2017.
Also scheduled for hearing in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee is SB 158 by Senator Royce West (D-Dallas). SB 158 would create statewide standards and policies for the use of body-worn cameras by law enforcement agencies. Fort Worth has already implemented a body camera program for officers in the field, and other large jurisdictions such as Dallas and Denton are expected to follow suit. President Obama is a proponent of the use of such technology, creating a task force to make recommendations, and has even requested that Congress fund programs to help state agencies purchase body cameras for their police forces. He has, however, noted that “there is a role for technology to play in building additional trust and accountability, but it’s not a panacea.” Sadly, just last week body camera footage was released of last June’s Dallas PD-involved shooting of mentally-ill Jason Harrison, which is still under investigation.
Senator Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa (D-McAllen) filed SB 95 to raise the burden of proof in civil asset seizure cases from ‘preponderance of the evidence’ (the seized property was probably linked to the commission of a crime) to ‘clear and convincing’ (the seized property was substantially more likely than not linked to the commission of a crime). SB 95 received a hearing in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee last Tuesday, in which the bill received little opposition but was left pending in committee. Senators and Representatives alike are trying to tackle this issue of asset seizure from all angles, including increased transparency (HB 249 and HB 472) all the way up to doing away with civil asset forfeiture (HB 3171).
Dallas Observer’s Unfair Park blog describes the plight of Yiliana Perez, whose only vehicle has been impounded for 13 months due to a hold by the Dallas County DA’s Office and Dallas PD who are pursuing a civil forfeiture of the vehicle. To secure the title to Perez’s pick-up truck, the DA would only have to prove Perez “knew or should have known” that her boyfriend would use her truck to commit a felony (he and a friend stole a tailgate from another truck while being watched by an undercover officer). Perez’s boyfriend has already been released on parole after pleading guilty to Evading in a Vehicle and Felony Theft, but her truck remains in lock-up.
