South San Antonio News

On Sept. 1, Texas enacted House Bill 17, a legal change allowing for the removal of district attorneys for misconduct if they don’t pursue certain crimes, News 4 San Antonio reported. The law now qualifies a prosecutor's decision not to pursue a specific type of crime as "official misconduct" which is a significant shift in Texas' criminal justice framework, focusing on accountability for elected officials.

The Texas Legislature passed House Bill 17 earlier this year, The Texas Tribune reported. This is a move seen as a means to rein in "rogue" district attorneys in left-leaning counties who had shown reluctance to prosecute certain crimes. In the event a removal trial occurred, a regional administrative judge would have appointed a state district judge from the same region to oversee the removal trial for the prosecutor.

Texas prosecutors cannot be impeached or subjected to recall elections by the Legislature. Before House Bill 17 became law, locally elected officials could only be removed through a court process initiated by a local resident, accusing them of incompetency, official misconduct or drunkenness, according to state statute. If a state district judge in the county found the accusation worth investigating, and a jury later found the prosecutor guilty, the judge had the authority to order their removal from office. While this process was rarely used, if a prosecutor were removed, the governor would appoint their successor until the next election.

On June 6, when Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 17 into law, he stated, "If a rogue district attorney wants to be in law enforcement, they have to start by enforcing the laws of the State of Texas," according to a press release.

In a statement to New 4 San Antonio, Mayor Rich Whitehead of Helotes, Texas expressed his hopes regarding the recent justice reforms, stating, "If they're looking at a potential 20 years as opposed to six months, I think that will deter certain behavior."