Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center

I received an email today from the Kim Ogg for Harris County District Attorney campaign, stating that there would be a campaign announcement tomorrow (September 25th) at 10:00 a.m. across from the CJC. This is not surprising news, since she pretty much confirmed that she was going to run again immediately after she lost the election for the unexpired term in 2014. As I stated when she ran last time, Kim is a qualified candidate.  I was disappointed with some of her antics during her 2014 campaign, and I hope there will be more of a discussion of actual issues this time around. It is worth noting that Kim had a closer margin in her race than most other Harris County Democratic candidates did in 2014.  She is definitely someone that Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson will need to take seriously on the campaign trail.  However, Devon will now be viewed as a solid incumbent with several years under her belt by November of next year. As usual, my amateur political analys

Today's new post at Fault Lines deals with a story out of The Atlantic  which talks about the "Victimhood Culture" and how it applies across the board in the Criminal Justice Arena. You can read it here .

Yesterday afternoon, the Harris County District Attorney's Office filed a response to Judge Larry Gist's Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law on the David Temple case.  The document, entitled Respondent's/State's Objections to the Habeas Court's Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, is 80 pages long. The lengthy response painstakingly addresses each and every one of Gist's findings and rebuts his findings that prosecutor Kelly Siegler withheld exculpatory Brady information during Temple's 2007 trial.  Unlike Gist's findings from the Habeas hearing, the response actually cites the record (both from the original trial and the hearing) in dismantling the findings. Additionally, the response brings to light a disturbing irregularity that casts even more doubt on Gist's findings -- more on that in a moment. As those following the Temple case know, Judge Gist's findings listed 36 findings (remember that number, it will become important sho

For those of y'all that think California is off its rocker when it comes to criminal law, you should read this post today at Fault Lines .