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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 24, 1975)
Page 2 THE BATTALION FRIDAY, OCT. 24, 1975 Judges agree Part 4 of 9 Change needed New charter merges courts By JACK HODGES Battalion Staff Writer 85th Dist. Court Judge W. C. Davis said Thursday he favors the merging of the Texas Supreme Court and the Court of Criminal Appeals as proposed in the upcom ing constitutional revision election Nov. 4. “But we sometimes handle both cases and there should not be much trouble if there is a change,” Davis said. Davis said that the proposed revi sion should speed up the court sys tem and reduce the case load be cause of the combination. “It seems to me, when there is a person’s life on the line and there are 14 courts for civil appeals and only one for criminal appeals, there should be a change, Davis said. “If there is an overloading of cases in a particular court district then the state Supreme Court could assign judges from another court district to relieve the stress, Davis said. Associated Press! AUSTIN, Tex. — Texas needs judicial reform so desperately that many top officials support the new constitution principally because of its simplified judiciary article. But included among the critics of the article are a few heavyweights, including the presiding judge of the state’s highest criminal court, John F. Onion Jr. Proposal Two on the constitution revision ballot, if passed, will com bine the Texas Supreme Court with the Court of Criminal Appeals. The two courts then would become the Texas Supreme Court with one chief justice and eight other jus tices, with not fewer than five in session at any time. There are a lot of districts that have small caseloads and help from those districts could benefit others, he added. Special News Analysis Series The change would rename the chief justice of the Supreme Court to the Chief Justice of Texas. “I think Briscoe’s stand against the proposals came out a little late but he has his opinion and I don t want to argue with others who come out against the proposals,” Davis said. The Courts of Civil Appeals would no longer be constitutionally restricted to review only civil cases if the proposal passes. There is a controversy that the two courts have specialized in either civil or criminal matters. Brazos County Judge Bill Vance said he is also for the merging of the two courts also and viewed the proposal much the same as Davis. “It creates a unified court system and will help alleviate case over loads, ’ Vance said. The court sys tem would be under the Supreme Court of Texas which would have the final say on criminal and civil cases, he added. Reform is needed, says Onion, but this article fails to provide it. Texas Supreme Court Chief Jus tice Joe Greenhill, however, says it does. How can a voter make up his mind when the state’s top two judges differ? Especially when they use the same language to jus tify their positions? Here is Onion: “It’s not necessar ily the punishment but the swift ness and certainty of punishment, I believe, that deters crime. What good are speedy trials if we don’t have speedy appeals?” Here is Greenhill: “Swiftness of trial and punishment is the most TAues of TMe GiGAesM- fSTRAmee how it ~ LOOKS UKO IT ^ WAS SHOT. fflBDE Miff! THE K.K. COULSfU'T put A DenjT im rr! PROBABLY HAPPerueD LJHOfU IT FELL. WHEOJ THEY GOT CRAIG bOUm HE SP\D A LITTLE. BEAR 10J A PA03CHO WALKED UP THE TOWER AdJD SHOT IT bOWM fuH-ROH AfOD SAMTA CLAUSE DIVE-BOfTBED IT WITH PResenlTS... CRAIG'S STILL SHOOK^ UP! IT PROBABLY JUST SLIPPED OFF BY ACCIDCfUT T r ti'jtmiwm* CAMERA*-5LEf\JE FADES TOj BLACK AND OUT. Che Battalion Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editor or of the writer of the article and are not necessarily those of the university administration or the Board of Regents. The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting enterprise operated by students as a university and community newspaper. Edito rial policy is determined by the editor. Represented nationally by National Educational Advertising Services, Inc., New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. The Battalion, a student newspaper at Texas A&M, is published in College Station, Texas, daily except Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and holiday periods. September through May, and once a week during summer school. Mail subscriptions are $5.00 per semester; $9.50 per school year; $10.50 per full year. All subscriptions subject to 5% sales tax. Advertising rate furnished on request. Address: The Battalion, Room 217, Services Building, College Station, LETTERS POLICY Texas 77843. Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words and are subject to being cut to that length or less if longer. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit such letters and does not guaran tee to publish any letter. Each letter must be signed, show the address of the writer and list a telephone number for verifica tion. The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for reproduction of all news dispatched credited to it or not otherwise credited in the paper and local news of spontaneous origin published, herein. Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein are also reserved. Copyright (g) 1975, The Battalion. Second-Class postage paid at College Station, Texas. Address correspondence to Listen Up, The Battalion, Room 217, Services Building, College Station, Texas 77843. Members of the Student Publications Board are: Bob G. Rogers, Chairman; Dr. Gary Halter; Dr. John Hanna; Roger P. Miller; Dr. Clinton A. Phillips, Jeff Dunn, Tom Dawsey and Jerri Ward. Director of Student Publications: Gael L. Cooper. MEMBER The Associated Press, Texas Press Association Editor James Breedlove Assistant Editor Roxie Hearn Production Manager T. C. Gallucci City Editor Steve Gray Campus Editor Sandy Russo Sports Editor.. Tony Gallucci Photography Director jack Holm RAY B0MNSKIE BODY SHOP 409 Burnett Bryan 823-7219 FREE ESTIMATES! IVE DO INSURANCE P** ft,-~ ™v- '• -• " * *i y a * Jr Xk * W* WY „ 1101 Tttxas Sue AuKema at Dena’s Hair Fashion specializes in layer cutting frosting & Men’s & Women’s Hair Styling. 106 Carson 822-6034 . 7.7<VriK7K Embrey’s Jewelry We Specialize In Aggie Rings. Diamonds Set — Sizing — Reoxidizing — All types watch/jewelry Repair Aggie Charge Accounts effective deterrent we have to crime. Onion’s detractors say his real opposition is to the loss of his title as presiding judge. The main features of the judiciary article are the merger of the Supreme Court and the Court of Criminal Appeals, and the crea tion of a unified judicial system under the administrative control of the Supreme Court. The five criminal appeals judges, and the court’s two special commis sioners, would become Supreme Court judges, raising the total from nine to 16. Death and retirement will drop it back to nine. So Onion wouldn’t be out of a job, just a title. “I’m not sure there s that much difference between being an as sociate justice on the Supreme Court and being presiding judge on the Court of Criminal Appeals, ” he said. Onion argues that criminal ap peals will be prolonged, not speeded up, by giving the 14 courts of civil appeals criminal jurisdiction and allowing the Supreme Court to hear appeals from those inter mediate courts. The time it will take for the top court to decide whether or not to take a case, added to the time needed to write opinions on those it accepts, will clog up the criminal docket worse than it is now. Onion says. Onion finds opposition to his position on his own court. Judge Truman Roberts predicted two years ago the court’s huge caseload would lead to a scandal. Onion said recently that problem has been solved. Roberts disagrees. “We have heard arguments in 120 cases, which we have not de cided, another 543 have been filed for arguments, and there are ap proximately 2,000 cases around the state in which notice of appeal has been given. This court simply can not handle 2,600 cases, ’ says Roberts. The courts of civil appeals with a total of 42 judges, have a caseload one-fourth the size of the caseload of Onion’s and Robert’s court. Among others opposed to the new judiciary article is Dallas Democratic state Sen. Oscar Mauzy, who says the other 48 states that have one top appellate court are the ones that are out of step, not Texas. “The State Bar of Texas and the Supreme Court of Texas have rec ognized the specialization in law, as we’ve seen in medicine during the last decade, by providing for specialized law licenses, says Mauzy. “To practice certain kinds of law now, you have to have a cer tain kind of license issued by the Supreme Court, on certification. “Those special areas are domes tic relations law, labor law and criminal law. “Now, if it makes sense to re quire the lawyer who practices criminal law — and I’m not one of them -— to take a specialized examination and to be given that specialized license, then it makes sense to me that the judges who try those criminal cases should also he specialists. The AFL-CIO opposes the judiciary article because it allows the state to appeal criminal cases where a trial judge declares a law unconstitutional and where the Supreme Court feels it needs to clear up conflicting views of the new courts of appeal. Some county judges who never went to law school oppose the arti cle because it would giv e the legis lature the power to take away their jurisdiction to try cases and put it in new circuit courts whose judges must he lawyers. Some district and county clerks oppose it because local voters would he allowed to merge the two offices. There are many top public fi gures who support the article, eluding former Texas Chiefjusti) Robert W. Calvert, Lt. Gov. Bi Hobby, and Atty. Gen. John HI A major selling point thesuppu ters use is the granting of cej tralized administrative powers: the Supreme Court. Texas is lli only state whose judiciary lackslii power. 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