The latest Texas Department Of Criminal Justice news from The Texas Tribune.
As the Great Depression was winding down, a variety show broadcast from the state prison in Huntsville began airing on the radio and collecting a devoted audience. A new book collects the stories of the men and women who performed on the show and at the annual Texas Prison Rodeo. Full Story
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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. Full Story
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Our Faces of Death Row app has some new features. Now, you can search for inmates by the county where the crime was committed and see who has an execution date scheduled. Full Story
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A New Orleans-based appeals court says the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's restrictions on beard lengths and religious head garments for inmates violate federal law. Full Story
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The Texas prison inmates database has been updated with the latest data from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Use the app to learn more about the most common crimes and look up any of the more than 144,000 inmates housed in Texas prisons. Full Story
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Lori Williams was searching online last year when she found a plea apparently written by a Texas prison inmate looking for pen pals to write him in prison. The accompanying photo was of the man who assaulted her at knifepoint. Full Story
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has told the Texas Department of Criminal Justice it is tentatively barred from importing a drug used in executions. Full Story
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The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has decided that prison inmates should not be allowed to have active social media accounts, even if friends or family on the outside run them. Full Story
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Pablo Lucio Vasquez, who admitted to slitting the throat of a 12-year-old boy and beating him to death before stealing a ring and necklace from the body 18 years ago, was executed Wednesday evening. Full Story
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A federal appeals court on Wednesday stayed the execution of a Dallas accountant who shot and killed his two daughters in 2001. John Battaglia's lawyers argue he is not mentally competent enough to be put to death. Full Story
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Adam Kelly Ward, whom appeals courts recognized as mentally ill, was executed Tuesday evening for the 2005 shooting death of a code enforcement officer. Full Story
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About 4.6 percent of Texas prison inmates are undocumented immigrants with standing requests that they be turned over to federal authorities when their sentences are served. Full Story
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Texas prison officials have recommended the firing of a supervisor at the Clements Unit and disciplinary actions against 17 others for allowing a severely beaten inmate to remain undiscovered in his cell for an unknown amount of time. Full Story
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After 24 years on death row, a re-sentencing trial and an escape attempt, Gustavo Julian Garcia, 43, was executed Tuesday evening. Full Story
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Mark Anthony Gonzalez arrived on death row last week after being convicted in the shooting death of Bexar County Sheriff Sgt. Kenneth Vann. With his arrival and the executions of Richard Masterson and James Freeman in January, there are now 252 people in Texas living with a death sentence. Full Story
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James Garrett Freeman shot and killed Justin Hurst, a game warden, following a high-speed chase in 2007. He was executed Wednesday evening, the second execution in Texas this year. Full Story
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The Texas Tribune's Prison Inmates database is now updated with the latest data available from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. It is current as of December 2015. Full Story
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Richard Masterson, who was convicted and sentenced to death for a 2001 strangulation and murder in Harris County, was executed Wednesday night. Full Story
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The grand jury decided in December not to indict anyone for Bland’s death. But the door remains open for other charges, special prosecutor Darrell Jordan said, though details of what the grand jury is examining are confidential. Full Story
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In 2015, Sandra Bland's death jolted a conversation about inmate safety and mental health, while high-profile murder cases continued and Texas was criticized for the lengths it reportedly went through to find execution drugs for death row inmates. Full Story
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