Texas judge resigns after being caught helping prosecution

[Vegas Halo Fan]

Texas District Judge Elizabeth E. Coker has stepped down after she was caught sending text messages to prosecutors with suggestions on questions to ask in court in order to secure convictions.

 

Texas Judge resigns after being caught texting instructions to prosecutors to help win convictions

 

[ABC]

UPDATE: via the research of Poor Richard’s Reader Bob, let’s play guess the political party affiliation of this corrupt judge! Ready to play?

Yep. You guessed it.  She’s a Democrat….

UPDATE #2: Several of our liberal Democrat friends have pointed out that Ms. Coker “switched parties” shortly before getting caught breaking the law.  Not only is that all too convenient, but it’s irrelevant.  That makes her about as credible a “Republican” as Florida’s Charlie Crist. Besides that, she was elected as a Democrat not on the GOP ticket, so any attempts to turn this back around and blame it on Republicans or “Republican values” (as some have tried to say) is laughable and delusional.

[arch stanton]

UPDATE #3: What kind of asshat would make this about party affiliation?

[Vegas Halo Fan]

I couldn't care less about her political affiliation, and frankly you read more of it than I did. I didn't pay attention because in many jurisdictions, judges run as nonpartisan candidates. Judge candidates here don't show a party affiliation on the ballot. It would figure that Texas would make them affiliate.

Edited January 7, 2016 by Vegas Halo Fan

[gotbeer]

Feds should be looking into this.  Both the Judge and the prosecutors should be investigated and if impropriety is found prosecuted.

[arch stanton]

If I had a client who'd been convicted in her court I'd be filing an immediate appeal.

[Tank]

If I had a client who'd been convicted in her court I'd be filing an immediate appeal.

 

imagine all the cases that are going to be retried because of this. 

[ABC]

I couldn't care less about her political affiliation, and frankly you read more of it than I did. I didn't pay attention because in many jurisdictions, judges run as nonpartisan candidates. Judge candidates here don't show a party affiliation on the ballot. It would figure that Texas would make them affiliate.

 

I scan everything I read. I'm too impatient to read word by word and I took some speed reading courses because I read tons of books. Most of my online reading is pressing the spacebar every a couple of seconds. I may have seen the article through but you may have actually read more words.

[red321]

elected judiciary is one of the stupidest things this country does

[mtangelsfan]

elected judiciary is one of the stupidest things this country does

 

Because politicians do it so much better?

 

Instead of voting for the judge, we will get the attorney-general's brother-in-law.

[red321]

Justice is supposed to be blind, not sold to the highest bidder. Judges should not be running for office, collecting campaign contributions, etc. etc. 

 

Here's a report from the Brennan Center on impacts of judicial elections on criminal law.

 

http://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/publications/How_Judicial_Elections_Impact_Criminal_Cases.pdf

 

 

Here are some key findings...it's a pretty sobering read.

 

Key findings from these studies include:

• The more frequently television ads air during an election, the less likely state supreme court justices are, on average, to rule in favor of criminal defendants.7

• Trial judges in Pennsylvania and Washington sentence defendants convicted of serious felonies to longer sentences the closer they are to re-election.8

• In states that retain judges through elections, the more supportive the public is of capital punishment, the more likely appellate judges are to affirm death sentences.9

• In the 37 states that heard capital cases over the past 15 years, appointed judges reversed death sentences 26 percent of the time, judges facing retention elections reversed 15 percent of the time, and judges facing competitive elections reversed 11 percent of the time.10

• Trial judges in Alabama override jury verdicts sentencing criminal defendants to life and instead impose death sentences more often in election years.11

[mtangelsfan]

Interesting points red.

 

I still don't really like the idea of appointments.  Especially since the politicians appointing them care as much about being re-elected as the judges.

[red321]

I would agree that appointments have their own concerns as well MT, a process where legal groups are making recommendations seems to be the best - but it certainly seems the politicization of the judicial system is on the rise. Millions of dollars are being spent on elections...supporters are spending hundreds of thousands to elect judges who then rule on cases involving the financial supporters of their campaign (see Wisconsin and West Virginia for recent examples). It's a bad sign...a very bad sign.

[mtangelsfan]

Agreed red. Not sure if there is anything one can do about it either.

[red321]

Well, there's an obvious solution...get rid of judicial elections

[mtangelsfan]

Sure but it isn't going to happen

[gotbeer]

Well, there's an obvious solution...get rid of judicial elections

 

While judicial elections has it's flaws.  I think appointments would be far worse. 

[Tank]

college buddy of mine was appointed to the bench by ah-nold.

 

i thought "great! i'll never have to pay another traffic ticket again!" he said no. time for a recall!