Former Democratic Socialist Houston Judge Franklin Bynum Reprimanded by Texas Judicial Disciplinary Board, for …
An excerpt from Friday’s more-than-9000-word-long opinion in In re Bynum, by the Texas Special Court of Review (“Robert Burns, Chief Justice of the Fifth Court of Appeals; Justice W. Bruce Williams of the Eleventh Court of Appeals, and Justice Jeff Rambin of the Sixth Court of Appeals”):
Before this Review Tribunal is an appeal de novo from a Public Reprimand issued by the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct (Commission) against the Honorable Judge Franklin Bynum (Petitioner), former judge of County Criminal Court at Law No. 8, Harris County, Texas. The Commission’s Public Reprimand concluded that Petitioner
- failed to comply with the law and maintain competence in it;
- lent the prestige of his office to advance his private interest in his admitted agenda of extreme criminal justice reform;
- failed to treat people with whom he dealt in his official capacity with patience, dignity, and courtesy;
- performed his judicial duties with bias and prejudice, and/or manifested through words or conduct bias or prejudice in the performance of his judicial duties therewith;
- failed to accord the State the right to be heard according to the law;
- engaged in improper ex parte communications with defense attorneys and/or defendants while the State was not present;
- made improper public comments regarding pending and impending criminal proceedings which suggested to a reasonable person Petitioner’s probable decision in cases involving law enforcement officials and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office; and
- conducted extra-judicial activities that cast reasonable doubt on his capacity to act impartially as a judge and/or interfered with the proper performance of his judicial duties.
Based on the findings above, the Commission found that Petitioner engaged in “willful or persistent conduct clearly inconsistent with the proper performance of his duties, casting public discredit upon the judiciary and the administration of justice in violation of Canons 2A, 2B, 3B(2), 3B(4), 3B(5), 3B(6), 3B(8), 3B(10), 4A(1), and 4A(2) of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct, Section 33.001(b)(5) of the Texas Government Code, and Article V, Section 1-a(6)(A) of the Texas Constitution.” … [W]e conclude that the Commission met its burden of proving Petitioner willfully violated [those] Canons … and Article V, Section 1-a(6)A of the Texas Constitution and we issue a Public Reprimand to Petitioner….
Petitioner campaigned for Judge of County Criminal Court No. 8 in Harris County as a Democratic Socialist. At the time, he was known as an advocate for radical criminal justice reform. While in office, Petitioner made several posts on his social media accounts disparaging the Harris County criminal justice system and expressing his support for reforms.
During Petitioner’s judicial tenure, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office (HCDAO) filed numerous complaints with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct carefully detailing what it described as Judge Bynum’s “incompetent,” “willful,” “persistent,” “intentional or grossly indifferent” conduct. In July of 2020, the HCDAO filed a complaint against Petitioner, adding supplemental complaints in September 2020, November 2020, January 2021, and October 2021. While the detail is too voluminous to include here, in sum, the HCDAO alleged that, while on the bench, Petitioner “repeatedly and willfully ignored basic principles of criminal jurisprudence and conducted proceedings in his court with an unprofessional and irredeemable bias against the State of Texas and its prosecutors.” …
As set forth below, the evidence demonstrates by a preponderance of the evidence that Petitioner refused to set aside his own personal views of what he wanted the law
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