The Texas District and County Attorneys Association (TDCAA) has been so kind as to commission Texas legislative updates for us. Thanks, TDCAA.
Some highlights:
- House Bill 169, allowing police to set up checkpoints (ihre Papieren, bitte!).
- House Bill 164, creating an affirmative defense for the medical use of marijuana.
- House Bill 170, creating a presumption, if a person’s BAC is over .08 within 90 minutes of arrest, that his BAC was over .08 at the time of the offense.
- House Bill 287, reducing possession of less than a gram of a controlled substance in penalty group 1 or 2 from a state jail felony to a class A misdemeanor. (This is from Rep. Harold Dutton, who is also sponsoring bills on the abolition of the death penalty and discovery in criminal cases, among other things.)
- My personal favorite so far, Senate Bill 112, creating a deferred prosecution program for military members and veterans.
There’s much, much more; I may report on it in coming days.