AUSTIN, Texas — Two prominent Texas lawmakers have filed bills that would require prosecutors to report how often they miss deadlines to bring formal charges against jailed defendants, leading to their release.
The proposal comes as the KVUE Defenders continue to examine how the Travis County District Attorney’s Office has repeatedly blown past the window to bring indictments in felony cases.
The reporting has uncovered a two-fold problem: One is that people charged with violent offenses have been released from jail. Others have remained in jail well past the deadline to indict, which experts say is a possible civil rights violation.
Two companion bills in the House and Senate focus on the first issue.
Filed by Sen. Joan Huffman (R-Houston) and Rep. Jeff Leach (R-McKinney), the bill requires prosecutors to notify the state Judicial Council – a policy-making body for the state’s judiciary – when a missed deadline leads to a defendant getting out of jail.
Under the state’s “Release Because of Delay” provision, prosecutors have 90 days to charge a jailed defendant in felony cases and 30, 15, and five days in misdemeanor cases, depending on the seriousness of the case.
The KVUE Defenders found that District Attorney José Garza’s office – which handles only felonies – has missed its deadline in dozens of cases. We first revealed the release of two murder defendants in February because they had not been indicted in 90 days, triggering a firestorm.
But in other instances, defendants have sat in jail for weeks, days or months after the deadline.
In a statement to the KVUE Defenders, Huffman said she proposed the Legislation to “enhance the transparency of prosecutorial operations … This increased transparency in the criminal justice system will provide Texans with vital information about prosecutorial performance to make informed decisions when voting for their county or district attorney.”
We asked Garza to comment on the Legislation. He repeated his same statement – that he has taken steps to ensure cases are indicted in a timely manner.