The Lieutenant Governor of Texas believes some local prosecutors in the state's largest cities are not being sufficiently aggressive in prosecuting defendants accused of violent crimes. He is calling on state lawmakers to look for ways to re-assign those cases when they return for their next session in January of 2023.
"Most of our district attorneys in the state are great people, but we've got some who just won't charge anyone with a crime...it doesn't meet their standards," Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said. "And we have judges who are letting murderers out on the street to kill others. Harris County is really the poster child for that situation."
In Harris County, which has the highest population of any county in Texas, two men are accused of killing off-duty Harris County Constable Precinct 3 Deputy Omar Ursin. Suspect Ahsim Taylor, Jr. had been charged with capital murder in 2021. The other suspect, Jayland Womack, had been charged with murder in 2021. Both had been released from jail on bond when Deputy Ursin was killed.
"When you let someone who has been charged and accused and alleged of committing a murder and you let them out on the street to kill again, that tells you the system is broken. We've seen it too many times, especially in our big counties," Patrick said.
The counties with the largest populations in the state are Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar and Travis. Four of the elected district attorneys in those counties are Democrats. In Tarrant County, current District Attorney Sharen Wilson is a Republican. She chose not to run for re-election and will be succeeded in January by Phil Sorrells, who is also a Republican.
In Texas, district attorneys and district court judges are elected by voters in their counties. State law generally gives district attorneys "prosecutorial discretion" on what charges to file against a defendant and whether to negotiate a plea bargain. Bond for criminal defendants is set by a judge.
Lt. Gov. Patrick, a Republican, wants to craft new state laws to move cases from one county to another in the event a district attorney chooses not to prosecute.
"We need to figure a way within the law and within the Constitution either to move those cases to another district attorney in another county, or to recall those district attorneys or those judges," he said.
The next session of the Texas Legislature starts on January 10th of 2023 and runs through May 29th.
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