For all the wailing and gnashing of teeth coming out of Austin as they deal with a $27 billion shortfall, the Legislature has not been without its bipartisan good works.

While the Democrats have careered wildly from impotence to irrelevance on financial issues as the super-majority Republicans refused to look for new revenues or tap the rainy day fund, the two parties have worked together to craft some good new laws, especially in the area of criminal justice.

Consider the following incomplete list of new laws that either have been signed by the governor or await his signature:

An eyewitness ID bill designed to cut down on the number of victims and witnesses who make erroneous identifications in both in person and photographic lineups.

Texas law enforcement agencies and police departments have thick policy manuals with protocols for everything from securing a crime scene to driving a squad car. But almost none have protocols for conducting a lineup. Yet national studies show that about three-fourths of wrongful convictions involve faulty eyewitness identifications.

The new law will require police agencies to adopt procedures and will encourage them to use techniques proven to cut down on false identifications. These include such things as having the lineup conducted by an officer who doesn't know who the suspect is so as not to inadvertently give off cues, and showing photographs one at a time rather than in a "six-pack" array.

A DNA bill that will make it easier for convicted persons to have material tested if it wasn't done before the trial or if more recent testing techniques might give information that is "more accurate and probative than the previous test results."

The bill would also require unidentified DNA to be matched with FBI and Texas Department of Public Safety databases.

A bill that would do away with the "magic word" test for whether someone wrongfully convicted will be compensated for years or even decades spent in prison. The most recent victim, Anthony Graves, spent 18 years in prison, 12 of them on death row, for a set of gruesome murders he did not commit.

By a formula enshrined in law, Graves is eligible for $1.4 million in compensation but was denied it last February by State Comptroller Susan Combs because the court order releasing him from prison did not include the term "actual innocence."

Under the bill, an affidavit by a district attorney in the crime's jurisdiction or a special prosecutor who officially investigated the case could provide the verification of innocence. In Graves' case, tough former Harris County prosecutor Kelly Siegler developed overwhelming evidence showing Graves to be the innocent victim of gross prosecutorial misconduct.

A bill that combines the Texas Youth Commission and the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission. Importantly, it also closed three of the 10 scandal-ridden state juvenile prisons and mandates a greater use of community-based rehabilitative programs.

Ironically, the Legislature needed to see that such programs have been very successful in dealing with adult offenders before applying the lessons to juveniles.

The new approach is expected to result in better outcomes while saving the state $150 million, reflecting a growing agreement between conservatives and liberals that being smart on crime is as important as being tough.

Justice, after all, is priceless ­- and stupidity is expensive.

rick.casey@chron.com