The latest courts news from The Texas Tribune.
The Texas Rangers are investigating the death of Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old woman found dead in the Waller County Jail on Monday. An autopsy classified her death as suicide by hanging. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/07/16/CKCoKC5WEAATZ1S.jpg_large.jpg)
A Texas correctional officer killed while escorting a prisoner to his cell was beaten to death with a two-foot pry bar, a tool guards carry to unlock the small meal tray openings in a cell door, the Tribune has confirmed. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/07/16/Tray_door_w_slot_bar.jpg)
Started during Greg Abbott's tenure as attorney general, a project to upgrade the technology for the state’s antiquated child support enforcement system is years behind schedule. The AG's office, now under the leadership of Ken Paxton, is hoping to restructure the project. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/07/15/Pxton-Abbott.jpg)
Former Gov. Rick Perry has now spent more than $2 million in state campaign cash fighting the abuse-of-power indictment against him. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/07/03/Perry_NH_July_3_TT.jpg)
A rookie Texas Department of Criminal Justice guard was beaten to death Wednesday at a northeast Texas prison as he was escorting an inmate, one with an extensive history of attempted escapes and previous beatings of prison personnel, from a day room to a cell. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/07/15/BillyJoelTracyPrison-Bars-TT.jpg)
Operation Jade Helm 15, the military training exercise that sparked an international frenzy earlier this year, gets underway Wednesday in Texas. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/07/15/JadeHelm15-map004.jpg)
The Texan who is the U.S. House's top Republican on homeland security issued a scathing indictment of Mexican officials on Tuesday for letting Joaquin Guzmán, the world’s most notorious drug lord, tunnel out of a maximum-security prison. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/02/18/_BDA5025.jpg)
The prison escape of Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán is an affront to U.S. law enforcement, which has worked for years to build a case against the kingpin, a member of Texas' congressional delegation said Sunday. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2014/02/22/Guzman.jpg)
Juvenile justice advocates applauded when the Texas Legislature decided this year that repeated school truancy will no longer be a crime. But school and court officials worry they are losing tools that have actually worked at keeping kids in school. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/07/10/Constable_TruancyTT.jpg)
Attorneys for the Obama administration will try again on Friday to persuade a three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to let a controversial immigration policy take effect. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/07/02/ScottKeller.jpg)
Attorney General Ken Paxton on Wednesday filed a lawsuit over the Environmental Protection Agency's rejection of parts of a Texas clean air program, launching the state’s second battle against EPA regulations in less than two weeks. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/06/22/7C2A8842.jpg)
Over the course of this year's legislative session, House Speaker Joe Straus and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick made their priorities known by what bills got the lowest bill numbers. Take a look at how those proposals fared. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/03/20/StrausPatrick.jpg)
Roughly 150 Texas attorneys have signed on to a letter threatening to file a complaint with the State Bar of Texas against Attorney General Ken Paxton for his response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2013/11/25/kenpaxton13.jpg)
In a statement, Attorney General Ken Paxton says the prosecutors pursuing a felony fraud indictment against him are inexperienced and politically motivated. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/06/22/UP9A8500.jpg)
Texas is set to receive another $788 million stemming from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill under a settlement between BP, the federal government and five Gulf Coast states. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/OilrigFire.jpg)
Ken Paxton's legal troubles — stemming for his admission last year that he violated state securities law — may be getting more serious. A special prosecutor says he plans to start presenting evidence in less than a month seeking to indict the attorney general for first-degree felony securities fraud. Full Story
Three days after the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage nationwide, some Texas county clerks are refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/06/26/7C2A9562.jpg)
A U.S. Supreme Court decision Monday that upheld the use of an execution drug used in Oklahoma will not change how death row inmates in Texas are executed, according to a Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Lethal-Injection_Split.jpg)
As he redoubles his anti-Washington crusade on the presidential campaign trail, Ted Cruz is receiving an assist from an unlikely source: the high court he used to argue before. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/06/27/cruz-Iowa.jpg)
A growing number of asylum-seekers are asking for safe haven based on a factor that isn't usually associated with a need to flee one's homeland: gender identity. In the days before the Supreme Court ruled in a landmark gay marriage case, immigrant rights groups were drawing attention to the plight of LGBT immigrants. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/06/22/TransImmigrants.jpg)