In tough-on-crime Texas, Rick Perry has overseen the executions of 230 prisoners — more than any other modern governor. As he eyes a White House bid, his support of the death penalty could have mixed consequences.
death penalty
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Criminal Justice
Comptroller Pays Anthony Graves $1.4 Million
Anthony Graves got a check for $1.45 million today from Texas Comptroller Susan Combs, money the state owed him for keeping him behind bars for nearly two decades for a crime he did not commit.
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Criminal Justice
U.S. Supreme Court Asked to Intervene in Death Penalty Case
Ten days before death row inmate Humberto Leal’s scheduled execution, his attorneys and the Mexican government have asked the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of execution.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Anthony Graves: The TT Interview
The state of Texas incarcerated him for nearly two decades — and nearly executed him twice — for murders he didn’t commit. Now, the state is balking at giving him the $1 million he’s owed for all the years he spent wrongfully imprisoned. Despite it all, Anthony Graves remains positive.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Anthony Graves: The TT Interview
The state of Texas incarcerated him for nearly two decades — and nearly executed him twice — for murders he didn’t commit. Now, the state is balking at giving him the $1 million he’s owed for all the years he spent wrongfully imprisoned. Despite it all, Anthony Graves remains positive.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Texas Inmate at the Nexus of Execution and Abuse
A small church in an impoverished south side San Antonio neighborhood became a place of fear and shame for children who allege they were victims in the 1980s of sexual abuse by a prominent priest. One of those alleged victims is death row inmate Humberto Leal.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Senate Approves Anthony Graves Compensation Bill
The Texas Senate today passed a bill that would finally compensate Anthony Graves for the 18 years he spent behind bars convicted of grisly murders he did not commit.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Aaronson on pork choppers, Aguilar on sanctuary cities legislation, Galbraith on Brownsville’s ban on plastic bags, Grissom on Delma Banks and prosecutorial misconduct, Hamilton on a tough week for higher education in Texas, Philpott on wildfires and politics, Ramshaw on the state’s pursuit of a federal Medicaid overhaul, M. Smith on what would happen if lawmakers don’t rewrite school finance formulas, yours truly on the Lege as schoolyard and Stiles with interactive graphics on how the proposed Senate redistricting maps compare with current ones: The best of our best content from May 9 to 13, 2011.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
30 Years Later, Banks, Prosecutor Face Off Again Over Death Penalty
In a Texarkana courtroom Monday, Delma Banks Jr. faced again the district attorney’s office that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled committed misconduct when it successfully fought to send him to death row in 1980 for the shooting death of 16-year-old Richard Whitehead.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Death Row Inmate Faces Same Prosecutors Who Committed Misconduct
At a hearing Monday in a Bowie County state district court, lawyers for Delma Banks Jr. will ask the court to disqualify prosecutors who the U.S. Supreme Court ruled suppressed evidence and deliberately covered up mistakes in a 1980 murder trial that sent the young black man to death row.
