The Texas District and County Attorneys Association was called out in the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee today for "demagoguery" on its Twitter feed by Rep. Matt Schafer, while Rep. Steve Toth called their lobbyist Shannon Edmonds "totally disingenuous" and "dishonest" for some of his Twitter comments accusing committee members of being sympathetic toward cop killers.
The episode reminded me of John Bradley's posts on the DA's user forum coming back to haunt him in the Senate Nominations Committee last session, except this essentially happened in real time, with Shannon tweeting from the back of the room and legislators calling him out for it on the dais.
Over the years I'm afraid Grits has become jaded. I've heard that sort of demagoguery so often from prosecutors' representatives at the Lege that it almost seems normal. But clearly most of the legislators on the dais hadn't been exposed to such attitudes.
They were debating SB 23 remaking sentences for capital offenses committed by juveniles to comply with the Supreme Court's ruling in Miller v. Alabama. The bill passed out of committee 7-2 in the same form it cleared the Senate but will likely be amended on the House floor.
UPDATE: Go here to watch the exchange, which begins with comments by Rep. Toth at the 43:50 mark. Rep. Schafer chimed in on the topic at the 53:10 mark, followed by Reps Carter and Canales.
MORE: See SA Express-News coverage of the hearing. The bill is scheduled for a House floor vote on Friday.
No comments:
Post a Comment