By Rob Kepple
TDCAA Executive Director in Austin
We did it! After a stormy year, the sun shone on our Annual Criminal and Civil Law Conference. Nearly 900 attendees and speakers enjoyed three days of top-notch live training in Galveston. I also believe that people liked reconnecting with others in the profession, and the happiness on folks’ faces showed. I want to thank our training team of Brian Klas, LaToya Scott, and Andie Peters for putting together this robust training and the receptions—the ice sculpture with the TDCAA logo at the Thursday night dinner was a great touch! I also want to thank a few Training Committee members for helping us with registration and for running the various tracks on Thursday. We could not have done it without Tanisha Manning, ADA in Harris County, Zack Wavrusa, ACDA in Rusk County, and Xochitl Vandiver-Gaskin and Clay Hearrell, ACDAs in Galveston County. Thanks for pitching in!
Legendary Annual Conference shirts
It is fun to see how many members take the TDCAA Annual Conference T-shirt so seriously. We have many folks with quite a collection. But the unicorn of TDCAA Annual shirts has to be the one we sold 20 years ago in 2001. At that time we had a tradition that the TDCAA President got to design the shirt. In a real break from tradition, then-President David Weeks (former CDA in Walker County) went Hawaiian. I can’t say that design was a huge success, and we ended up donating quite a few shirts to the Austin Goodwill upon our return. (For years after that Annual, we would see that shirt on various homeless people around town.) It even spelled the beginning of the end of our practice of the President designing the Annual shirts.
But it was a favorite of a select few folks, and for the past 20 years, we’d see those Hawaiian shirts here and there at our Annual Conferences. I am happy to report that at this Annual, the 20th anniversary of David Weeks’s Hawaiian shirt debut, three attendees broke out the underappreciated classic: David himself; Bob Scheske, former County Attorney in Gonzales County, and Randall Sims, DA in Armstrong and Potter Counties.
Bar proposal to amend TDRPC 3.09
On October 6, the State Bar Committee on Disciplinary Rules and Referenda considered a proposal by St. Mary’s School of Law Professor Vincent Johnson to amend Rule 3.09 to include a number of additional duties related to conviction review proposed by the American Bar Association’s Model Rule 3.8. You can read that model rule at www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/rule_3_8_special_responsibilities_of_a_prosecutor.
The proposal is to add Subsection (g) of the model rule, which would create an ethical duty for a prosecutor, when learning of credible and material evidence casting doubt on a conviction, to disclose it to the defendant, investigate it, and take appropriate action to “remedy the conviction.” To date, this model rule has rarely been adopted in other states, and states that have addressed it have narrowed it quite a bit.
The committee voted to begin the process of proposing this rule change, so if you want to offer input, time may be short. If you have questions or concerns, call me at 512/474-2436.
The future of TDCAA’s online training
I have been proud of the work that the TDCAA staff has done to create quality online training during the pandemic. Now that we are plenty busy returning to our regularly scheduled live training, what will become of our online courses?
Great news! Our grantor agency, the Court of Criminal Appeals, has approved our request for additional personnel so that we can continue to offer online as well as live training. In the very near future, you will see online courses on Child Protective Services work, criminal prosecutions of defendants with mental health issues, and trial advocacy. We are very excited about using online training to enhance and enrich the live training you rely on.
Mandatory Brady training, 2022 edition
Speaking of online training: In 2022, prosecutors who took the mandatory Brady training TDCAA offered several years ago will be due for a refresher course. We again intend to produce a Brady course and offer it online for free, and we will be developing it in the coming months. Stay tuned.
Federal student loan forgiveness
We have tried to keep you informed about the student loan forgiveness program that in theory applies to prosecutors and other people in public service. I say “in theory” because we have heard that the government has made it very difficult to obtain the forgiveness once someone qualifies.
That might be changing. If you have tried to navigate that program, it appears that the new administration is attempting to get it back on track. Read about it at www.wsj.com/articles/student-debt-relief-to-include-more-public-sector-workers-11633514400, and keep us informed if you have success.
Annual Business Meeting
Our association will hold its annual business meeting in conjunction with the Elected Prosecutor Conference on Wednesday, December 1, at 5:00 p.m. at the Hilton Dallas Rockwall Lakefront Hotel. At this meeting, the membership will consider a leadership slate of candidates for President, President-Elect, Secretary–Treasurer, District Attorney at Large, and Assistant Prosecutor at Large. In addition, we will hold regional meetings for the purpose of elected directors for Regions 3, 5, 6, and 8. If you have any questions about the meeting or the elections, please call me at 512/474-2436.