After nearly a decade of work, Senator Rodney Ellis finally passed out SB 263, legislation which would create an Innocence Commission to address and fix the problems of the Texas criminal justice system. Republican opposition in the Senate had held up this legislation for years, but the bill finally made it through this session. So why is the Democratic Chair of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, Aaron Pena, holding up the bill?
After sitting on the bill for several weeks without setting a hearing, now the chairman refuses to allow a vote on the bill. Supporters of the bill tell Burnt Orange Report that they definitely have a majority of votes to pass it out of committee, yet Chairman Pena will not let the bill come up for a vote. All bills must be passed out of committee by this Saturday, or else they die.
Senate Bill 263 would create an independent commission to examine cases where innocent citizens who have been wrongfully convicted, identify the causes of those convictions, and recommend changes in the criminal justice system to prevent such future miscarriages of justice. While it was watered down by Senate Republicans, it remains a good bill and a powerful statement of the need to change Texas' woeful criminal justice system.
According to Senator Ellis' most recent press release on the issue, the legislation will "create an Innocence Commission to launch in-depth investigations each time an innocent person is wrongfully convicted, review what went wrong in these cases, why, and spell out the changes necessary to ensure these injustices are not repeated."
According to release, over 200 people nationwide have been cleared through DNA testing after they were convicted. In Texas 29 men have been exonerated by DNA testing and 14 of those cases have come out of Dallas County in just the past five years.
With all the troubles of the Texas criminal justice system, we are shocked that Aaron Pena is strangling this bill.
**UPDATE**Grits for Breakfast made a post on the same subject today. Chairman Pena commented in that thread that the bill should be heard on Friday.
However, Chairman Pena also stated in the comments on the Grits post that, "I am somewhat disappointed to learn from a lobbiest that his staff has sent out a press release to Burnt Orange Report that has muddied the water." To clarify, the press release we linked to was originally sent out on April 24. Our sources told us about what was happening, and upon further research, we found the press release on Sen. Ellis' website.
Glad to see everything the bill will be voted out before the Saturday deadline.
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