It Might Just Work

 Posted on May 05, 2008 in Uncategorized

While I was contemplating the six-thousand-year-old theropod and sauropod tracks on Mr. McFall's farm over the weekend, Dallas D.A. Craig Watkins came out in favor of summarily executing prosecutors who concealed exculpatory evidence... well, actually just hitting them with bar sanctions and maybe criminal prosecution. Lots of folks had something to say about this:

Grits, Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer Robert Guest, Fort Worth criminal-defense lawyer Shawn Matlock, Connecticut public defender Gideon, and New York criminal-defense lawyer Scott Greenfield.

Ordinarily you would think that by the time the Connecticut and New York bloggers got to a Texas topic it would be as dead as Eight Belles and not in need of further flogging. But the two Gs are on top of things, so their posts never scare me off. I though of an angle - how are the prosecutors on the TDCAA forums reacting? - only to find that Wise County, Texas criminal-defense lawyer Barry Green had beaten me to it. Bryan, Texas criminal-defense lawyer Stephen Gustitis went there, too.

All I have to add right now is that if a like-minded Harris County District Attorney is elected, he and Mr. Watkins together might have enough influence with the legislature to actually get the legislature to give Brady some teeth.

I didn't like prosecutorial lobbying of the Texas Legislature when it was Chuck Rosenthal trying to kill LWOP (why should the executive branch, charged with enforcing the law, be paid to try to change the law?) but now I can see its value.