Court Opinion

ID: 9414062
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-01 23:36:19.169782+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:47:02.952951
License: Public Domain

REYNALDO G. GARZA, Circuit Judge,
Specially Concurring:
I concur fully in the opinion by Judge Carl E. Stewart and I write separately to urge the district court below to end this case: I am very familiar with the same from its very beginning.
This case was transferred by our court from the Eastern District to the Southern District of Texas because its main prison was in Huntsville, which is in the Southern District of Texas, together with most of the other Texas prisons.
I was Chief Judge of the Southern District of Texas when this case was transferred to our court. I knewT the case would keep a judge tied up for months, and I could not spare any of my judges to do so. Shortly thereafter, I swore in five new judges to the Southern District of Texas at one time, which shows that the ones that were there were carrying a very heavy load. I knew that my friend Judge W. Wayne Justice was familiar with the case and I talked to him about taking the case over. He said he would if Chief Judge Joe Fisher of the Eastern District of Texas gave his consent. I was able to get the consent of Chief Judge Fisher and I appointed Judge W. Wayne Justice to take over the trial of this case.
I remember the Attorney General’s Office asked that I call a special en banc court of the Southern District of Texas, claiming that I did not have the authority to give the case to Judge Justice. By an order that I entered, I refused the request and told them that I did not need the Attorney General of Texas to tell me what my duties as Chief Judge of The Southern District of Texas were. Chief Judge John R. Brown had filed an order giving every district judge in Texas the right to sit in any other district in Texas. Judge W. Wayne Justice could sit, if assigned, in the Southern District of Texas. Our Southern District owes a big debt of gratitude to Judge W. Wayne Justice.
The fact that a consent decree was entered into shows that the conditions in the prisons of Texas needed to be addressed.
Judge Carl Stewart, in his opinion requires the district court to make the findings required under § 3626(b)(3), or to terminate the 1992 judgment, and I write separately to urge Judge W. Wayne Justice to put an end to this case. I am sure that the conditions that existed when the consent decree was entered no longer exist, and I am sure many of those affected at the time are long gone from the penitentiary. If any of the present prisoners have need for some kind of help, they can file another law suit against the Texas Prison System, but this case has to be ended. I urge my good friend Judge W. Wayne Justice to do so if at all possible.