AUSTIN, Texas — Two bills making their way through each chamber of the Texas legislature could impose new oversight and regulation on district attorneys across the state, with several advocates naming Travis County prosecutor José Garza as a specific target.
Since the legislative session began, top Republicans have said they want to “rein in” “rogue DAs” by filing legislation that would obligate them to pursue and prosecute all criminal offenses.
In recent years, some Texas district attorneys, including Garza, have opted not to pursue criminal cases for certain offenses. Perhaps most prominently, several attorneys nationwide signed an open letter, saying they would not pursue criminal charges for abortion-related cases. Some prosecutors have publicly stated they would not pursue charges of low-level thefts or first-time marijuana offenses.
“The legislature and the governor are asserting the primacy of state government, and that is a big change,” James Henson, the director of the Texas Politics Project, said. “There is a perception, empirically valid in some places, not in others, that crime is out of control, particularly in Texas’ urban areas, and that prosecutors share part of the blame for that.”
Two priority bills, Senate Bill 20 and House Bill 17, could pave the way for district attorneys to be removed from office if they don’t choose to prosecute all criminal offenses.
“Unfortunately, certain Texas prosecutors have joined a trend of adopting internal policies, refusing to prosecute particular laws,” SB 20’s author, Senator Joan Huffman, R-Houston, said in a Senate committee hearing earlier this month.
This week, the Senate committee voted to move SB 20 out of committee, and it could be approved by the Senate as early as Monday.
House Bill 17, filed by Rep. David Cook, R-Mansfield, does the same as SB 20 and lays out the legal proceedings of removing a district attorney from office would happen through a jury trial. That bill has not yet faced a committee vote.
Several law enforcement advocates and stakeholders spoke in favor of the bill, with many naming the Travis County District Attorney’s office as part of the problem.
“Since winning the election and taking office in January 2021, the Travis County district attorney has actively interfered with Austin Police officers’ ability to file probable cause affidavits,” Thomas Villarreal, the president of the Austin Police Association, said in a hearing for HB 17 earlier this week.
District attorneys are elected positions and usually have a political party affiliation. That party affiliation has brought scrutiny on a national scale with narratives on both sides of the aisle arguing the criminal justice system is increasingly tied to politics.
Critics of the policies, including the ACLU of Texas, told lawmakers they were concerned forcing district attorneys out of office undermines the will of voters, who democratically elected those prosecutors to office.