September 1 will start a frightening new era for criminal justice in Texas, as the "rogue prosecutor" law takes effect.
It's tempting to assume that the law – which punishes district attorneys for refusing to prosecute certain types of crimes – is a straightforward push for a crackdown on abortion, in direct response to some of Texas' most prominent D.A.s announcing in 2022 that they wouldn't prosecute abortion providers. But there's more going on here. The law recently signed by Gov. Greg Abbott plays into the larger antidemocratic effort to stifle and ultimately remove locally elected progressives, however possible.
On its face, the new law exerts control over which cases prosecutors take on. But that is just one effect. Its secondary, more covert function is to keep locally elected D.A.s silent, or have them face removal. House Bill 17 works by defining any "policy of refusing to prosecute a class or type of criminal offense" as "official misconduct" for which prosecutors can be removed from office. Two major problems there: A "policy" is loosely defined as a "directive expressed in any manner," and throwing out bad cases or trivial ones is an essential function of any D.A.'s office
To view the full story, visit https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2023-07-07/texas-new-law-seeks-to-kick-out-elected-prosecutors-especially-ours/