State Rep. Toni Rose, D-Dallas, has filed long-shot House Bill 3080, which would prevent offenders proven to have had a severe mental illness at the time of their crime from being sentenced to death in a capital murder case.
Jolie McCullough
Jolie McCullough was a reporter at The Texas Tribune from 2015 to 2023. She began as a data visualization journalist and then reported on criminal justice policy, ranging from policing and courts to prisons and the death penalty. She joined the Tribune from the Albuquerque Journal, her hometown newspaper. She previously worked at the Arizona Republic and is a graduate of Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Texas executes triggerman in San Antonio murder-for-hire case
Texas executed hitman Ronaldo Ruiz late Tuesday night, 25 years after he killed a San Antonio woman for $2,000.
Posted in
Politics
Here’s how much Texas candidates spent per vote in the November elections
A Texas Tribune analysis of how much Texas candidates spent per vote ahead of the November elections reveals campaigns that won or lost on the cheap, as well as those that paid heavily for their outcome.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of Texas death row inmate
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Texas death row inmate Duane Buck, agreeing that his case was prejudiced by an expert trial witness who claimed Buck was more likely to be a future danger because he is black.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Despite state budget woes, Republican lawmaker wants funds for death penalty attorneys
Rep. James White’s House Bill 1676 would create a state-funded office to represent death-sentenced inmates who can’t afford their own lawyer in their direct appeals to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
Posted in
Demographics
Like the Texas Legislature at large, committee chairs are mostly white men
Most of the members of the Texas Legislature are white men — and so are the committee chairs.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Execution halted days before Fort Worth man was set to die
Tilon Carter, 37, received a stay Friday afternoon from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. His execution was set for Tuesday.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Texas lawmakers aim to eliminate death penalty for convicts who didn’t kill
At least two Texas Democrats and one Republican are pushing to reform the death penalty under the law of parties, which holds those involved in a murder equally responsible, even if they weren’t directly involved in the actual killing.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Execution halted for man convicted in Corpus Christi stabbing death
Two days before death row inmate John Ramirez was scheduled to be executed, a federal district court in Corpus Christi halted the execution.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Texas executes man convicted in double murder
After a nearly four-hour delay while waiting on final appeals in the U.S. Supreme Court, Terry Edwards was executed Thursday night for a robbery turned murder he claimed he did not commit.
