Travis County DA making new rules for small-amount drug cases
Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore is developing new protocols for how felony prosecutors evaluate drug cases involving the smallest amounts of illegal substances such as cocaine or methamphetamine, an effort that could increase the number of dismissals in such cases and referrals to diversion programs.
Moore already has instructed crime labs for the Austin Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety to stop testing substances involving the tiniest amounts of drugs because her office will not prosecute those cases, according to a letter sent to those agencies this week.
Moore said Travis County for years has declined to go forward with “trace amount” cases that involve 0.01 grams or less of a drug — often the equivalent of a few particles or residue. The new protocols would expand the practice: Cases in which a margin of error in the weight of the substance could make it slightly more than a trace will also be dismissed now.
“It is a resource issue all the way across the board,” she said. “We are not going to prosecute that case, we are not going to burden the court with it, and now we have also taken the burden off the lab to even test it.”
Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/20190419/travis-da-making-new-rules-for-small-amount-drug-cases
(Austin American Statesman)
