HB 12

In State v. Stephens (2021), the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held that current Election Code provisions authorizing the attorney general to prosecute election law violations were invalid. Several state statutes authorize the attorney general to prosecute specified types of criminal cases with the consent of the local prosecutor. As state senators argued in an amicus brief filed with the court urging it to rehear Stephens, "[a]s an elected official, a [local] district attorney may have challenges prosecuting members of the district in a highly politicized environment."" State representatives (with others) noted in an amicus brief urging rehearing that the Fifth Court of Appeals recognized in its decision in Medrano v. State (2014), that there may be ""politically sensitive cases in which it is advisable"