Random Thoughts . . .

Random Thoughts Before the Texas Heat Gets to Me (6/23/98)

Random thoughts as this summer begins eerily like the heat wave of 1980 (when, by the way, the ink was drying on my high school diploma):

You may have read that a DWI defendant in Denton County received life in prison from a jury last week. This maximum sentence prompted the standard comments from various officials such as "if you are going to drive drunk, don't do it in Denton County". That may very well be true; however, the Defendant in that case was a habitual offender meaning that (1) he had been convicted of a felony, sent to the pen, and released, (2) committed and convicted of another felony, sent to the pen, and paroled again, and (3) along the way had been convicted at least two times of DWI. All of this transpired before he committed his most recent DWI in Denton County. Considering what he had to lose, that guy shouldn't have been driving drunk anywhere.
The normally secretive Department of Public Safety is now offering criminal histories over the Internet for a fee. Since I've already mentioned Denton County, it should be noted that it has been providing criminal histories for offenses committed within the county for almost a year at no charge. Additionally, a somewhat frightening pay site with loads of information on Texans is PublicData.com.
After the horrific murder in Jasper, Texas, I'll bet there will be a wave of politicians in the Texas Legislature introducing legislation to make a "hate crime murder" a capital offense. This is so even though the State may already be able to make the killing of James Byrd, Jr. a capital crime (if it can prove the death occurred during the course of kidnapping) and even though the legislature has previously refused to elevate hate crimes to capital murder status. See Texas Penal Code § 12.47 (1993 version).
Speaking of the Jasper offense, it was disconcerting to see that Ted Kennedy made a push to make a "hate crime murder" a federal offense punishable by death. Ironically, just over 20 years ago the Supreme Court noted in Patterson v. New York, 432 U.S. 197 (1977) that "[I]t goes without saying that preventing and dealing with crime is much more the business of the States that it is of the Federal Government . . . ." In light of the proliferation of federal criminal legislation, 1977 seems like a long time ago.
Oddly, small town Bridgeport ISD imposes a drug testing policy on its students engaged in extracurricular activities while big time Grapevine-Colleyville ISD will probably vote against such a measure. Which district was right? [Note links to the Dallas Morning News become "dead" very quickly since the newspaper refuses to archive its stories for more than just a few days].

Barry Green is the District Attorney for the 271st Judicial District.

Update on7/9/98:
As predicted, the politicians have jumped on the Hate Crime bandwagon.