Bad facts, tales of dead men, and NSA pick up lines

Here are a few odds and ends that didn't make it into their own Grits posts this week but deserve readers' attention:

David Dewhurst makes the call
Note to public officials: If your relative is arrested, don't call the cops to ask that they be released. Get them a lawyer. That's how it's done.

'Stuck in jail'
So much for the right to a speedy trial. Reported the Houston Chronicle, "Dozens of suspects have remained behind bars in the Harris County jail for years without going to trial, according to a Houston Chronicle investigation. Legal experts and judges called the situation outrageous and said it may be a violation of the suspects’ constitutional rights." See a slideshow on some of the cases involved.

Bad facts make bad law: Exoneree compensation edition
Michael Blair was falsely convicted of capital murder but, while incarcerated for the murder he didn't commit, confessed to four child molestation cases that earned him four life sentences. He will almost certainly die in prison. A divided Texas Supreme Court ruled that he is not eligible for compensation for the false conviction. See the Texas Tribune's coverage. Reading the opinion, a concurrence, and the dissent, the old adage "bad facts make for bad law" comes to mind. Blair's unique situation is unlikely to be repeated. Meanwhile, some exonerees have had prior convictions and part of the reason they were convicted was that police had a "round up the usual suspects" mentality. I understand the justices not wanting to see Blair compensated, but the contortions undertaken by Justice Nathan Hecht to reach his desired outcome flew in the face of what the Legislature intended, which was that future, post-exoneration convictions would make people ineligible for compensation, not past crimes. The main decision was only fully joined by a plurality (four judges), so it's possible these issues could come back to the court with different and less prejudicial facts surrounding them the next time the Comptroller denies a compensation claim under Justice Hecht's standard.

Cop regained job after excessive force incident
A man won an excessive force lawsuit against the Carrollton PD after an officer slammed his head against a wall while in custody. The cop was fired but (unsurprisingly) regained his job through the civil service appellate process.

New law lets police sell confiscated guns
The Texas Tribune has the story.

Houston PD finally testing old rape kits
Houston PD has eliminated its rape kit testing backlog by sending all the old kits to an outside lab for independent testing. No word yet on how many cases may be solved, but each one will be its own mini-scandal.

Tales of dead men
Dead men tell no tales, but an historian is seeking people who can tell tales about them, searching for answers to mysteries regarding old inmate graves before those who might know about them are all gone.

NSA Pickup Lines
The offerings at Twitter hashtag #NSApickuplines are hysterical. E.g., "You look way prettier in person than in your webcam." Let's hope it's true that Twitter memes are an accurate predictor of political behavior. The Twitterverse doesn't appear to think much of NSA phone snooping.