The next executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice will lead nearly 40,000 employees, manage a $3 billion annual budget, direct more than 100 prisons and oversee the nation’s busiest execution chamber.
Johnathan Silver
Johnathan Silver reported on the state’s criminal justice system for the Tribune from 2015 to 2017. Previously, Johnathan was a Texas Associated Press Managing Editors Buster Haas intern and staff reporter at the Victoria Advocate. A Fort Worth native, Johnathan graduated from The University of Texas at Arlington with bachelor’s degrees in political science and criminal justice – and a graduation mug from The Shorthorn, the campus student newspaper.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Appeals Court Changes Texas Death Row Inmate’s Sentence to Life
A man who sexually assaulted and fatally stabbed a 68-year-old woman during a 1995 burglary in Hidalgo County will no longer face execution after he has been determined to be intellectually disabled.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
District Attorney Drops Conviction Against Man Who Spent 20 Years on Death Row
Since 1977, prosecutors have said Kerry Max Cook raped, murdered and mutilated Linda Jo Edwards. On Monday, they set aside the conviction following claims of misconduct and DNA evidence tying another man to the crime.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
U.S. Supreme Court to hear Texas Death Penalty Cases
The cases of death row inmates Duane Buck and Bobby James Moore will be heard next term.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Advocates Push For Early Release of Severely Ill Sex Offenders
A prisoner rights advocate thinks lawmakers should loosen restrictions on medical parole eligibility for sex offenders. A top state lawmaker on criminal justice issues agrees with her but says the issue is just too politically toxic.
Posted in
Mental Health Matters
Issue of Mental Health Assessment a Focus as 3 Fight Death Sentences
Criminal justice experts say that determining mental health can be hard for anyone, including judges, defense attorneys, prosecutors and jurors. They say the issues revealed in three cases are key in furthering the discussion in how mental health is gauged when weighing the death penalty for killers.
Posted in
Energy
Christian Defeats Gates in Railroad Commission’s Republican Runoff
Former state Rep. Wayne Christian won the Republican nomination late Tuesday in the race for Texas railroad commissioner, edging out Houston-area real estate mogul Gary Gates in a race that turned heated in its final stages.
Posted inState Government
Hunt, Investors Back Out of Oncor Purchase Deal
A Dallas oil family is going back to the drawing board after determining it can’t go forward with a current plan to purchase utility Oncor, an attorney for the group told the Texas Public Utility Commission in a Wednesday filing that requested a March order be set aside.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
State, Lawyers Debate Identifying Execution Drug Supplier
Revealing Texas’ supplier of execution drugs could have a harmful effect on the provider and as a result leave the state empty-handed, a lawyer for the state suggested Wednesday during an appeals court hearing.
Posted in
Energy
Officials: Fire That Caused West Plant Explosion Was Intentionally Set
Three years after a West, Texas, fertilizer plant explosion killed 15 people, including 12 firefighters and first responders, state and federal officials said Wednesday that someone set that fire, committing a criminal act.
