[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5245]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  THE McLELLAND-HASSE LINE OF DUTY ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Poe) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, on January 31, Kaufman County, Texas, 
Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse had just pulled into work at the 
courthouse. He got out of his car and he started walking through the 
parking lot like he did every day, but Mark never made it to the 
courthouse to prosecute any other cases. He was ambushed, sprayed with 
bullets, and murdered in the parking lot. Officials are still uncertain 
of who murdered him.
  Then on March 19, just after suppertime in Colorado, the top prison 
chief, Tom Clements, heard a knock at his door. When he opened the 
door, he was shot point blank; and he died in the doorway of his own 
home in his own blood. Clements' suspected killer, Evan Able, 
resurfaced in Texas weeks later and died in a shootout with law 
enforcement officers in north Texas because he promised that he would 
not ever return to prison.
  Just 11 days later back in Kaufman County, Texas, District Attorney 
Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were sitting at home when their 
home was invaded by intruders. Mike was shot 20 times, and his wife, 
Cynthia, was also murdered. They were assassinated and murdered in 
their own home. District Attorney Mike McLelland had vowed to bring the 
scum to justice that had killed his assistant district attorney, Mark 
Hasse, but the assassins got all of them first: three fallen law 
enforcement officers and one family member.
  And just yesterday, a woman in jail in Texas is accused of trying to 
hire a hit man to kill Assistant District Attorney Rob Freyer, a friend 
of mine, and to also injure the district attorney in Montgomery County, 
Texas, to mimic the Kaufman County shootings.
  These attacks, Mr. Speaker, are really attacks on the symbol of the 
rule of law in the United States. These attacks also hit home for me 
and others of us who have worked at the courthouse. I spent part of my 
life as a prosecutor and a judge in Texas.
  Bad guys come through the courthouse charged with everything from 
stealing to killing. And I, like many others, had threats on several 
occasions; but fortunate for me, law enforcement officers in Houston, 
Texas, made sure those threats were never carried out. But as we've 
seen this year, sometimes the bad guys are successful in attacking and 
killing folks that work at the courthouse.
  Law enforcement officials, prosecutors, and judges do the work that 
many people just don't want to do, or will do. They deliver justice to 
criminals knowing that they face the threat of retaliation when they 
administer justice. These public officials enforce the rule of law for 
those who live outside the law.
  That's why I'm introducing the McLelland-Hasse Line of Duty Act. 
Senator Cornyn has introduced a similar bill in the Senate. This bill 
would beef up protections for prosecutors and judges who are in danger 
of retaliation and who are threatened with intimidation. It boosts the 
punishment for killing these officials or their family members or 
conspiring to commit these crimes against these individuals. The 
legislation also allows them to carry firearms in Federal facilities 
and Federal courts and other jurisdictions for their own self-
protection.
  Courthouse prosecutors and judges risk their lives every day to 
administer justice and create order in our communities. This 
legislation promotes security for those that secure justice for the 
rest of us.
  Because justice is what we do in America.
  And that's just the way it is.

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