Hoo boy - Judge Larry Joe will be PISSED when he hears about this!
Posted on 06/24/2003 7:02:38 AM PDT by wysiwyg
Criminal defendants in Texas are at the mercy of prosecutors in an unfair system that emphasizes winning rather than justice, Houston Police Chief C.O. Bradford said Monday.
"Trial by ambush -- that is a Texas criminal justice problem," the embattled chief said.
In a two-hour meeting with the Houston Chronicle editorial board, Bradford also said he believes there is sufficient probable cause for Harris County judges to convene a court of inquiry to publicly and independently investigate the entire Police Department crime lab, not just the troubled DNA portion.
He distanced himself, however, from any direct responsibility for the problems at the lab, where DNA tests have been suspended amid questions about their accuracy.
Bradford advocated major changes in criminal prosecution that he said would make the justice system more fair.
Drawing on his recent experience as a defendant charged with perjury, and on what he called the "tragedy" of the crime lab, Bradford supported measures such as an open discovery process in criminal trials and standardizing the appointment of forensics experts to assist court-appointed attorneys in cases with DNA evidence.
"I have always been opposed to any system where the defendant doesn't have access to the system," the chief said. "The prosecution gets to hold evidence like they did in my case."
Bradford has faced calls for his resignation since the Chronicle obtained memos last week from former crime lab employees. They said they had told him about problems in the DNA division, such as a leaking roof and the staff's lack of qualifications to analyze DNA, long before they became public in a December audit.
Bradford maintains that he did not know the extent of the problems.
The Police Department shut down the lab's DNA division in December after the independent audit exposed numerous shortcomings, including shoddy science and an undertrained staff. Prosecutors have begun reviewing 1,300 cases processed by the lab and ordered new tests to check its work in more than 300 cases.
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BRADFORD'S SUGGESTIONS
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| Some of the changes that Houston Police Chief C.O. Bradford advocated for the justice system: • Consistent appointment of forensics experts to indigent defendants who receive court-appointed attorneys. • Open discovery in criminal cases that would give defendants and their lawyers access to the cases being built against them. • A more open grand jury system, under which the public would know who was testifying in most investigations. |
In response to those questions, Bradford reiterated his possible support for the creation of an independent crime lab -- one that, separate from police and prosecutors, would analyze complex evidence such as DNA.
He stopped short of recommending creation of such a lab, which probably would be a public entity, saying he will reserve his judgment until the National Forensic Science Technology Center completes its assessment of HPD's forensic operations in three weeks.
In the meantime, the chief offered his unqualified support of a thorough, public investigation of problems at the crime lab in the form of a rarely implemented court of inquiry. Such a body would be convened by a state district judge and run by a special prosecutor chosen from outside the Harris County District Attorney's Office.
District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal has refused several requests, including those from the county's 22 criminal district judges, to recuse himself from any grand jury investigation of the crime lab. Rosenthal asserts that there is no conflict of interest that requires him to step aside.
Bradford disagrees.
"There is very little distinction between police and prosecutors," he said. "We need a public review of what has happened here."
The chief also extended his support for changes to help balance a justice system that works in favor of prosecutors. He described the attitude in the district attorney's office as, "What can I do to win? Win, win, win."
Bradford used his prosecution on charges of aggravated perjury, which a judge threw out in January, as evidence of some of the problems in the system. The chief had been indicted on a charge that he had intentionally lied under oath about whether he had called a subordinate an obscenity.
Bradford said he never would have been prosecuted by Rosenthal's predecessor.
"What happened to me would not have happened on Johnny Holmes' watch," he said.
That's right. If Johhny would have been after Bradford he'd be in jail right now...
Exactly. Instead we've got his idiot redneck replacement Chuck Rosenthal. That guy bungles so many cases, including Bradford and likely the Texas Sodomy Law before the supreme court, that one wonders why they even need a defense attorney.
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