DOUBLE D TELLS IT LIKE IT IS WHEN PROFILING IS UNDERWAY
Waco – Double D, back from a Western swing to his hometown in Washington State, pointed something of historical significance about the Twin Peaks criminal litigation unfolding before our eyes in the book-lined, paneled third-floor courtroom, the 54th Criminal District, Judge Matt Johnson, presiding.
No one – no one at all – has ever heard of a single case, much less 154 cases of capital murder and aggravated assault in connection with engagement in organized criminal activity, in which the defendants are prohibited from entering the jurisdiction in which they are charged unless they are scheduled to make an appearance in court, and only then, and for no other purpose at any time.
The consequences for getting caught?
Bail revocation is a dismal way to spend months – perhaps years – confined in a county lockup operated by a corrections corporation with multiple locations – cue the Nitty Gritty Dirty Band – THROUGHOUT THE SOUTH, from the Mississippi Delta to the drainage of the Atchafalaya River (shah-fly) in southwest Louisiana, the Brazos, the bayous, creeks and branches of the cotton land, and points south and east, high and low, soupy and upland, rural and more rural.
In each case, the LaSalle Corrections Corporation has an agreement with the County Commissioners, the state corrections departments, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons that allows the corporation to transfer inmates across state lines.
Section 20 of Article 1 of the Texas Constitution prohibits any person from being declared “out law” – that is, beyond the protection of the law, or being “transported” to another, foreign jurisdiction.
Something is seriously skewed, here, something carved in the stone, blasted by the sands of time. The hot sands. The sands of time.
Said the Double D, “In all the years I’ve been following criminal trials, I’ve never heard of anything like that. Ever.”
What?
“That our guy can’t go to the jurisdiction where he’s charged. Where he got busted.”
Defense counsel Casie stopped organizing folders of evidence, slapping photos in piles and inserting papers in plastic document holders in loose leaf folders, and said, “What?”
Double D repeated himself, the Go Go turned on her heel, did a dance step to the evidence table, cocked an eyebrow, reached for another stack of papers, and said, “I never heard of anything like that, either.”
Never?
“Ever.”
“In twenty years. Never.”
It’s even longer than that between constitutional conventions. True story. Look it up.
So mote it be.
– The Legendary