Criminal Law Blog
August 03, 2005
Could House Bill 56 mean that lawyers will no longer debate how many animal cages a handicapped offender can clean?
Rep. Madden’s bill might change the law so that hours of community service are no longer mandatory. That just might end some pretty silly arguments.
Here’s an example. I have a handicapped client. He can’t even leave the house, much less drive himself to see a probation officer, much less go to the animal shelter to clean cages to perform hours of community service.
But no, one prosecutor had insisted that because Community Service Restitution is mandatory, my client had to perform it. And the prosecutor admitted that I’d proved that my client was handicapped!
That is putting form over substance and rules over justice. Anyone with common sense knows that severely handicapped people can’t be expected to do certain things, regardless of what the law requires.
But because in law school, law students are taught that “shall” means “you have to,” and “may” means “you might or might not have to,” some lawyers chuck their common sense out the window and insist that an offender perform CSR. Even when they know the offender can’t.
The law currently provides that if you are placed on probation, you “shall” (you have to) perform hours of community service. Some prosecutors will waive the requirement. Others won’t.
Requiring the impossible from the handicapped is not just silly. It is cruel.
You can read House Bill 56 for yourself. The link below will help you search for it. Just click on the link and type “HB74” in and hit enter.
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlo/legislation/bill_status.htm
Be sure the session shown is the 79th 2nd Called Session, not some other Session of the 79th Legislature.
If you are in a blog directory and you want to subscribe to my blog, just hit “add,” then left-click on the RSS button below and drag it over to the “add” area. Thanks.
