Judge Glenn Devlin is a hard-nosed Republican who rules in juvenile cases in Harris county, Texas. A Houston Chronicle investigation earlier this year found that Devlin and one other judge in the county, John Phillips, were responsible for more than one in five minors sent to juvenile prisons across all of Texas in 2017.
On Tuesday night, he was one of 59 Republican jurists who lost their seat in the country, in a Democratic rout that also saw 19 African American women win judgeships.
The day after his loss, Devlin released at least 10 juvenile defendants without examining their cases. According to local news reports, he asked each defendant whether they planned to murder anyone. If they said no, they were free to go. Many of the juveniles who were released were accused of violent crimes.
He reportedly told other lawyers in the courthouse: “This is what the voters want”.
In Texas, defendants that are under 18 can either be held in detention or released to their families at the discretion of judges. Public defender Steve Halpert told local news channel ABC 13 that Judge Devlin was normally conscientious and tough on crime, and he was surprised by his behaviour.
“I just think this was a post-election weird blip. He made a comment, ‘This is obviously what the voters wanted’ and I think there’s an implication by electing all Democratic judges, there’s this belief that Democratic judges are going to be soft on crime,” he said.
Alex Bunin, the county’s chief public defender, suggested to the Houston Chronicle that his actions were something of a sulk. “It’s a huge change, and the only thing that has happened is that he was not elected, so I don’t know what to attribute it to other than that.”
