3.22.2007

Get In The real world.

From the Texas Prosecutor's Web Site: “I would be willing to bet—for all those people who testified against this bill, I’ll buy their lunch and dinner all next year if they can find one murderer in Harris County who is on deferred adjudication. All they got to do is bring me one. And I’ll bet you one of the things is—I’ll bet you he’s not black.” Rep. Harold Dutton (D-Houston), testifying before the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence on HB 800, his bill to allow expunctions of any successfully-completed deferred adjudication, in reference to prosecutors who testified against HB 800 because the bill would apply to murderers, rapists, robbers, and others dangerous criminals. Give me 15 minutes in the District Clerk's office and I'll find you one. I suspect many, many times in Harris County, a prosecutor was holding a murder file that sucked. A dead witness, a serious self-defense issue, a senior-citizen-mercy-killing, etc. and, instead of dismissing it, he was able to cut a deal for deferred adjudication probation. (Although the "I'll bet you he's not black" was pretty funny.)