Nine bills. One purpose: a justice system that does not re-injure the people it exists to protect.

These are proposed bills — drafts, not filed — developed by a Texas family with a record of passing victims' legislation, and offered to the advocacy organisations and legislators who can champion and author them. Each bill page starts with the issue in plain language, then goes as deep as you need: the arguments against it and our answers, who might stand with it, and a full technical appendix with the draft text for attorneys and staff.

The bills, grouped by the situation a family faces

Knowing what happened to someone you love

Let Families See the Evidence — Privately

Let prosecutors share evidence with a murdered person's surviving family — privately, without making it public.

Difficulty: Moderate (3 of 5) · Complete at all depths

Read the Trial Transcript — for $50 or Less

The prosecutor's copy of an existing transcript — free electronically, never more than $50 on paper.

Difficulty: Low to moderate (2 of 5)

Warn Families Before Evidence Is Destroyed

The State must tell the victim or family, and offer the evidence, before destroying it.

Difficulty: Low to moderate (2 of 5)

Being able to speak — and be heard — safely

Let Families Confer With the Prosecutor — Privately

What a victim or family tells the prosecutor while conferring is protected — with the accused's rights expressly preserved.

Difficulty: High (4 of 5)

No Surprise Expert Witnesses

Reciprocal discovery on expert testimony, so neither side is ambushed.

Difficulty: High (4 of 5)

Finding endangered people in time

Let Cars Do the Watching — Without Tracking Anyone

Texas alerts delivered to connected vehicles that can spot a wanted plate — with a ban on collecting plate data beyond an alert match.

Difficulty: High (4 of 5)

Parole decisions that account for victims

Put Victims on the Parole Board

Two seats on the Board of Pardons and Paroles for victims or surviving family of the most serious violent crimes.

Difficulty: High (4 of 5)

A Decade of Quiet After a Parole Denial

A mandatory 10-year set-off after a first denial for aggravated violent crimes and repeat violent offenders.

Difficulty: Hard (4 of 5)

A fair chance to recover from those also responsible

Give Homicide Families Time to Sue

Six years for a wrongful-death claim against third parties whose responsibility a prosecution reveals.

Difficulty: High (4 of 5)

About

Lawrence Baitland's daughter, Cayley Mandadi, was raped and beaten to death on October 29, 2017. The failures her case exposed — a family unable to see evidence privately before trial, a six-month wait for an autopsy report that was public thirteen minutes after the family received it — are the direct source of several of these bills. Lawrence and his wife, Alison Steele, have worked this process before: they helped pass Texas's C.L.E.A.R. Alert, the bill naming it, and the bill that let Santa Fe shooting parents access evidence privately. These nine bills are the next package. Read the fuller story on the About page.

How to help

For each bill, we are looking for organisations and people willing to champion it, endorse it, testify for it, or advise on it — and for members of the 90th Legislature willing to consider authoring it. The next step for any bill is the same: a 20-minute briefing with Lawrence Baitland, and then your yes or no. See what each role involves.