My Goodness, They Are Growing Some in South Texas
Eric Hillman, who used to work for the Nueces County (think Corpus Christi) District Attorney’s Office, is suing his former bosses.
As a prosecutor for the office, he was assigned a DWI case against a local man. As he began interviewing witnesses prior to trial, he found that the police had left out at least one witness: the one who said the driver was not drunk.
In Texas, a prosecutor is supposed to seek justice, not get convictions. So, prosecutors are required to disclose to the defense any exculpatory information.
Hillman’s bosses wanted none of that there crap going in in Texas.
He told his supervisor about it and claims his supervisor told him he did not need to inform the other side, which is required in the discovery process of a case in court.
Hillman did not want to wrongly pursue the case, so he called the State Bar of Texas for their opinion.
“They affirmed that he in fact needed to turn over that witness to the defense, so he went back to the supervisors and told them he was going to disclose the witness and he was fired the morning of the trial,” Pratt said.
The newspaper contacted the district attorney’s office to get a comment but, “They would not speak about the case, citing pending litigation.” Damn, ain’t that just slick as polished ice? The District Attorney’s office has lawyered-up!
Sic ‘um, Hillman.
with liberty and justice for ???
1Too many DA’s are concerned only with their conviction rate and justice be damned. They need a strong record so they can be elected to judgeships where they can help DA’s get more convictions so they can appear to be hard on crime by handing down heavy sentences — no one gets any points for acquitting an innocent person.
2I wonder how many criminal cases the Nueces County District Attorney prosecutes in a year. Let’s say, just for giggles, that it’s 1000.
I wonder what percentage of those cases are found guilty. Let’s say, just for grins, that it’s 60%
I wonder how many years this office (regardless of occupant) has been up to these shenanigans. Let’s say, just for laughs, that it’s 10.
I don’t have to wonder what those three numbers multiply out to, because I had a 780 on the math section of my SAT, back when it was hard, so I know for a moral certainty that the product of those three numbers is 6000.
That’s 6000 cases that would need to be thrown out and a new trial held.
Could be more, could be less, could be a LOT less. I don’t know because I was giggling, grinning and laughing when I took my wild-arsed guesses.
But I doubt I’m off by as much as an order of magnitude, so that’s thousands of cases that will be requesting new trials, if we actually still subscribe to truth, justice and the American Way in Nueces County.
However, most of the judges in the US District Court for Southern Texas are Reagan/Bush/Bush appointees, so that may be deferred.
3The best DA’s are the ones who recognize their responsibilities as the people’s attorneys. Among the worst are those whose primary concern is with their conviction rates. Prime examples of bad DA’s in Texas include the two in Williamson County, the one who became judge and his successor. Also on that list are the former Dallas County DA’s guilty of the wrongful convictions that have been recently overturned. We can’t overlook the Dallas and Harris County DA’s who for many years opposed legislation that allowed juries to assess life imprisonment without parole solely because the old law increased the probability of a jury assessing a death penalty. And among the very worst was the Wichita County DA, several decades ago, who, after a verdict was returned, would lie to the jurors about the consequences of the verdict in order to poison the communities understanding of the law. I am confident that most of the Texans who have served as District Attorney have been both conscientious and well intended; it is a shame that cannot be said of the Nueces County DA.
4I wonder how fast all this stupidity would change if Law Schools started revoking their degrees when their grads publicly prove they learned nothing in their schools? I’d start with Alberto Gonzalez and John Yoo. Then, the scofflaws in the Nueces County DA’s Office.
5The Nueces County DA is Mark Skurka. On his web page Skurka describes the mission of his office as including upholding the law and administering justice. Skurka is without honor. On a couple of recent occasions we have vacationed in Corpus Christi; we will not be returning anytime soon. Corpus Christi also sends Blake Farenthold to Congress.
6I’m starting to understand where all those people willing to do torture are coming from. And why a cop slammed a 76-year-old man against the hood, wrestled him down and Tasered him for having a (not illegal) expired registration sticker on his license plate.
Scumbag’s gotta be guilty of *something*, right?
7Way too many prosecutors see their position as all about themselves, not about the cases or about justice. Prosecution turns to prostitution (of the law, that is).
8World renowned founding father of quality mgmt, Dr. W. Edwards Deming, has been quoted multiple times saying “if your are working for a grade, your mind is on the grade – not doing the job.”
When a DA (or police force) is being measured on arrests, tickets, convictions, etc. they will find a way to make that number appear regardless of what the job (‘to protect and serve’) may be.
9I’m gonna split hairs here.
The ADA assigned to prosecute this DWI shouldn’t be investigating the case as well. Doing so IMO creates the appearance of a competition of interests.
A random dude saying another dude wasn’t drunk isn’t a very compelling witness to me. If I was the arresting officer I’d likely not even recorded his name. If he appeared to be a walking drunk interfering with my arrest, I’d likely called for a backup, arrested him, and sent him on his way to jail with the other officer.
10One of these days that fired attorney will end up as a judge someplace and one of these ignorant arrogant jerks will end up before him as a defendant. Oh, the justice of it all!
11This is Brady evidence, as in Brady v Maryland, and the Supreme Court has required disclosure over and over again. The value of that evidence is for the jury to decide not the prosecutor. I didn’t investigate my case or file has been attempted as an excuse and the courts don’t buy it. This man’s boss needs a disbarment proceeding to focus his attention.
12Sounds like some attorneys need their license to practice crimes revoked for practicing crimes.
13@BarbinDC — I’m with you!
14Please, somebody, go to the grievance committee in Corpus Christi.
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