Front Porch Politics Talks COVID-19 and Criminal Justice Reform With PBT



Front Porch Politics talks COVID-19 and Criminal Justice Reform with PBT member Ken W. Good.  You can listen to the podcast below.

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Breaking News- Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Limits Court Costs In Bond Forfeiture Cases

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  The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued an opinion today in Cause No. PD-0018-23; Continential Heritage Insurance Company v. Texas; In the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to address court costs in bond forfeiture cases. The court made two important rulings: 1.     The State of Texas is exempt from paying certain filing fees.  Whichever fees the State is exempt from paying, then the bondsmen cannot be required to pay them once the case is over. 2.     If the bondsmen is exonerated on a bondforfeiture under article 22.13 (a) 1-4 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, then the State must pay the filing fees in that case. The case was remanded to the Court of Appeals to determine which court costs the State is exempt from paying. To read the opinion CLICK HERE . If you would like to know more information, including how this may impact bondsmen, seeking a refund from a county, or if you are a county official and would like to know how this might impact your County, consider coming to
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New Attorney General Opinion Interprets Portion of SB 6- Who Can Deny Bail?

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On August 8, 2023, the Texas Attorney General's office issued Atty Gen. Op. AC-002.  The Attorney General had been asked to interpret article 27.027 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure which was enacted as a part of SB 6.   The article applies when a defendant is charged with committing an offense that is a felony while they are currently out on bail in a pending case for another offense which is also a felony.  If the two cases are in different counties, then SB6 requires notification to be sent to the other court.  If the two offenses are in the same county, then only the judge over the first court can magistrate the defendant on the new charge. The statute contains an exception which allows the court to designate another court to perform the magistration. The question that the Attorney General's office was asked to address was if the court designated to perform the magistration on behalf of the district court is not also a district court judge would the magistrate or the
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Breaking News- Judge Rosenthal Finally Dismisses Russell- Federal Litigation in Harris County Over Felony Defendants

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  The Honorable Lee H. Rosenthal, United States District Court Judge for the Southern District of Texas has dismissed Cause No. H-19-226; Russell v. Harris County ; In the United States District Court for the Sourthern District of Texas.  The case was dismissed August 31, 2023.  This will bring to close the litigation seeking to "force" Harris County to simply release defendants in felony criminal case proceedings. This litigation push started in Houston in another case called Odonnell v. Harris County .   In that case, Judge Rosenthal forced the county to adopt a simple release system for misdemeanor cases that has lead to an average of an 80% failure to appear rate over a two year period of time. After their "success" in the Odonnell  case, the same activists filed suit in Dallas County (the Daves  case) seeking to extend the Odonnell  ruling to felony cases as well.  Also, the activists filed suit in Galveston County (the Booth  case) and they filed a new suit in
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The Bail Post Episode No. 42- Federal Bail Litigation- Schultz v. Alabama- A Tale of Two Counties with Guest Sheriff Matt Gentry

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On this episode of The Bail Post, we discuss two different counties approaches to federal bail litigation.  In both counties, the federal courts entered preliminary injunctions to fundamentally change local bail procedures.  In Schultz v. Alabama, the county appealed, refused to settle and fought the litigation every step of the way.  The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the preliminary injunction and returned control of bail back to the county.  In contrast, in O'Donnell v. Harris County, the county appealed and won only to have the trial court enter a new preliminary injunction.  It was appealed as well and the 5th Circuit stayed the 2nd preliminary injunction stating that there was a substantial likelihood that the judges would win again.  However, the case did not go forward because there was an election and new judges were elected who promised to resolve the litigation.  A settlement was entered that tied the hands of the judges going forward.   On this episode, we h
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The Bail Post Episode No. 41- Has California Reached a Breaking Point with Guest Ann Marie Schubert

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Anne Marie Schubert is a career prosecutor.  Schubert earned a bachelor's degree from Saint Mary’s College of California in 1986 and a J.D. from the University of San Francisco in 1989. Her career experience includes being the Sacramento County District Attorney, Supervising Deputy District Attorney of the Sacramento District Attorney's Office, and Deputy District Attorney of Contra Costa and Solano Counties. Schubert has been a board member of the National District Attorneys Association and has been affiliated with Fight Crime: Invest in Kids and Stand Up for Victims. On this episode of The Bail Post we discuss whether California has  reached a breaking point with rising crime and criminal justice reform.   If you would like to learn more about the letter from the Oakland NAACP (referenced in this episode) demanding action on crime from their local politicians  CLICK HERE . If you would like to learn more about the News Nation townhall mentioned in this episode CLICK HERE .  V
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