The must-read Texas legal blog Grits for Breakfast is blogging on the documentary film Writ Writer -- and in doing so, Grits has some issues with the state's public records law and the prohibition against Texas inmates using it:

Whenever I think of a pro-writ writers' legislative agenda, I think of Brandon Moon, a DNA exoneree from El Paso now living in Missouri; the forensics in his case were botched by the DPS crime lab in Lubbock. Once in prison, he took up the writ writer's mantle, telling the Senate Criminal Justice Committee when he got out that:

'First, Texas prisoners have no right to receive information about their case, or anything else, under the Texas public information act, so Moon couldn't get access to the information he needed to combat the prosecution's claims. ... '

The Legislature has never seriously considered Moon's primary suggestion to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee in Houston now four years ago: Give prisoners open records access to information about their own cases. Presently prisoners have no rights to request information under Texas' Public Information Act, about their own cases or anything else.

Keep up with all the latest news from Texas Watchdog -- now on Ning! Fan our page on Facebook, join our group on MySpace, follow us on Twitter, fan us on Digg and send us stories you think we ought to see, join our network on de.licio.us and our social network on Ning, and put our RSS feed in your newsreader. We're also on NewsVine, tumblr, FriendFeed and YouTube.

[ad#ad1forposts]