How long can a person be held in jail without being indicted in the state of Texas?
If someone is arrested in the state of Texas for possession of a controlled substance and has been in jail for 180 days and not been indicted does the county have to release him on a pr bond and how do you go about doing that?
My 65-year-old brother is a nonviolent political activist and legal scholar who has been doing battle (and now winning) with the state of Texas, so I know the answer to this one—although Texas tends to ignore their own rules. He is an evangelist (former cabinetmaker, now retired) who helps people wrongfully incarcerated file their appeals, and he was asked by a policeman to show ID. Since my brother was standing on private property, in conversation with someone who was asking to have an appeal drawn up for a FAULTY conviction (which seems to happen a lot in TX), my brother calmly and politely declined, citing Constitutional precedent, and asked the policeman why he chose to stop when no crime was in progress–just two men standing next to the building where my brother worked and lived having a quiet conversation. The policeman got rough and arrested my brother for “Failure to Identify” and then added “Resisting Arrest” (which did not occur and which was later dropped). My brother promptly filed a Writ of Habeus corpus from his jail cell, handwritten but in perfect form, and also filed a civil suit against all parties involved in the false arrest. He was told that TX allows a 90-day hold without indictment…but the authorities got around that by moving him to a different county, so he filed more suits. The hold is supposed to be 90 days or less. The ACLU can help if this is violated. Hope this helps. I would file the Habeus Corpus right away though—especially now that President Obama has reinstated this very important citizen’s right after Bush/Cheney attempt to abolish it. My brother is now in a battle to secure the return of his property, and the recent trouble TX had for wrongfully confiscating people’s possessions and money has been a big help in getting someone in authority to help.