The courts down here are getting requests for sentence reduction form inmates citing House Bill 1067 (Or maybe the one inmate has it right and the number is 1607). Gist of the bill according to the inmates is inmates in state jail would serve no more than 85% of their sentence.

Anyone know about this?

I have no clue what they're talking about; that is not from the current session.

Furthermore, a House Bill (HB) is not law, so how could it have any legal significance in a motion? Once a bill passes it is known by its statutory citation, so I don't understand the "HB" reference.

Someone must be passing some bad advice around the prison library -- imagine that.

Maybe someone should send them that old Schoolhouse Rock PSA on "How a Bill Becomes a Law" (remember it? "I'm just a bill, yes I'm only a bill, and I'm sitting here on Capitol Hill, ...").

Shannon Edmonds
TDCAA

Yeah, I figured some jailhouse lawyer was committing malpractice, but since the judge was asking I wanted something more. That plus my Westlaw searches don't seem to be turning up anything like this.

Thanks for the answer.

Okay Shannon, you're starting to date yourself with those Schoolhouse Rock references. The real test though is whether you have to sing that little song in order to remember the words to the Preamble to the Constitution. You know, "We the people, in order to form a more perfect Union,...."

It was HB 16067 (they pass a lot of legislation) in the Congress of State Jail Inmates. It received a unanimous vote and it says 8.5% not 85%.

A couple of years ago, there were a series of writs that raised the same issue. HB 1067 is the bill that originally created the state jail system. Having worked on that bill, I can assure you, there is nothing in it that suggests early release, other than by shock community supervision.

I have responded to that writ several times. Usually it is 1067. Regardless, it is a bogus writ request. You should ask the court to deny the writ and find that it was frivolously filed, thereby taking away some good time credits.

But if it's state jail, there's no good time credit, so they don't care, right?

And the real test is whether you know the words to "Conjunction Junction, What's Your Function?" Better yet, the test for who's old (Quien es Mas Viejo?), is whether you remember any of the words to jingles from cigarette commercials. Finish the following: "You can take Salem out of the country, but ________"; "Winston tastes good _______________________"???

But you can't take the country out of salem

like a cigarette should

Always remember: You can lead a horse to water, but if you can make that sucker float on his back you really got something.

Jane, you are right. I was not thinking in the context of SJF, but 11.07 writs in general.

Thanks to all. The judge is happy. And I got a stroll down memory lane.

I still get one or two of these a week from somebody asking the court to reduce their state jail sentence. They are even using a pre-printed form where they simply have to fill in their name and case number. Where are they getting this stuff? Anyone ever figure it out?

Sorry, not a clue. But my daughter did her first solo during a production of Schoolhouse Rock, Jr., for the local community theatre and it was, you guessed it, "I'm Just a Bill". . . .