Wrongly Accused

In their post entitled "The Jury's Out," from Thursday, December 13, my colleague discussed a bill that they think should be passed regarding people being wrongly accused of crimes. They used the example of Michael Morton, who was wrongly accused of the murder of his wife and spent 25 years in prison before they found evidence that exonerated him. Now, the prosecutor from that case faces a court of inquiry for withholding evidence that would have prevented Michael from spending those 25 years in prison.
My colleague says that Senator Rodney Ellis introduces two bills that will be heard in the 2013 session. The first is Bill 89 that would "create a Texas Innocence Commission to examine post-conviction exoneration" that will be composed of judiciary people, people from both Houses, and lawyers. This has already passed in ten other states. The other is the "Automatic Disclosure Bill," which would create a statewide standard for disclosure in criminal cases.
I do agree with my colleague, although I noticed that they mentioned that Michael Morton is not the only one that this has happened to and I think they should have included another example. After researching a little myself, though, I found an article about a trio that had been charged with aggravated robbery and one was sentenced to 99 years in prison while the other two took plea deals and got probation. All three were exonerated recently but that does not erase it from their past.
Because of these examples, I do agree with my colleague that these bills should be passed so that innocent people don't have to be punished for things they didn't do.

Update on Planned Parenthood in Texas

The number of clients served by the state's family planning budget dropped while the cost of serving those clients increased in the 2012 fiscal year, since Planned Parenthood is no longer in the picture. Shocking, I know. According to an article from the Austin Chronicle from Friday, November 30, this is the case. The state served only 75, 160 family clients during the FY2012. This 63% decrease is accompanied by a 15% increase in the cost per client. These numbers seem to indicate that the situation is worse than it originally appeared earlier in the year.
As a result of the new funding matrix, which intentionally excluded Planned Parenthood, the program was shut out of any Title X funding. Christine Mann, the spokeswoman for the Department of State Health Services, claims that agencies have reduced their capacities, but infrastructure costs have not decreased at the same rate, producing the 63% decrease in clients with the 15% increase in cost. She says that it should resolve itself over time and return to previous levels.
On the contrary, Fran Hagerty, CEO of the Women's Health and Family Planning Association of Texas, says that when the "bottom tier" of the matrix, aka Planned Parenthood, has been removed, the most expensive and least efficient providers will be the most funded. The numbers provided by the DSHS indicate that the state's preferred providers appear to be incapable of providing services for the many women that will be left without access to the provider of their choice.
Like I said in my first post, what does the State of Texas think they're helping by getting rid of Planned Parenthood? Yes, a small percentage of what Planned Parenthood does includes abortions, but anyone can see that Planned Parenthood is necessary to provide family planning services for many women in Texas.