The latest courts news from The Texas Tribune.
Two bills regulating teenagers’ sex lives passed on the Senate floor today — one would outlaw “sexting” by minors; the other would exempt young adults caught having consensual sex with a minor from registering as sex offenders. Full Story
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Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004, convicted of igniting the 1991 blaze that destroyed his home and killed his three young daughters. Click here for a timeline of the major events in the Willingham saga. Full Story
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This week on the TribCast, Evan, Ross, Reeve, and Morgan discuss rumors of the death of campus carry legislation, a controversial amendment with many names, and the latest on redistricting and the budget. Full Story
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The Texas Youth Commission and the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission would be combined into a new Texas Juvenile Justice Department under a bill the Texas Senate approved today. Full Story
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State jail officials would get a clearer picture of potential problems in county lockups under a bill a Senate panel considered on Tuesday that would require counties to report the monthly turnover rate among jailers. Full Story
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Tenet Healthcare Corp., a Dallas-based hospital company under siege by Community Health Systems, has sued its competitor and potential parent for allegedly overbilling Medicare. Full Story
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No time to follow every twist and turn of the Texas Legislature? We've made it easier for you with our weekly recaps of the action under the dome. Full Story
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After his bill received heated debate on the floor, Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, withdrew his campus carry bill today. Full Story
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Data enthusiasts may be cringing at proposed federal cuts to data transparency websites, but the Texas Senate passed a bill today that would promote state transparency by requiring agencies to post high-value data sets online. Full Story
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The U.S. Supreme Court issued a 30-day stay for death row inmate Cleve Foster, who was scheduled tonight to become the first Texas inmate executed using the state's new three-drug lethal injection cocktail. Full Story
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The 3rd Court of Appeals today denied two death row inmates' request to stop the state from using a new lethal injection drug. Full Story
Texas laws more strictly regulate euthanasia of animals than the lethal injection of death row inmates, according to a report released Sunday by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas and the Center for International Human Rights at Northwestern University Law School. Full Story
Tan's wall-to-wall coverage of the budget (with more from the rest of the Trib crew, interviews with some of the freshmen seeing this up close for the first time and a map of how it works), Philpott on the similarities between budget worries in Texas and those elsewhere, M. Smith explains school finance, Ramshaw on the dwindling insurance options for orphans, Grissom on legal fights over the drugs used for state executions, Aguilar on the run-up to the debate over sanctuary cities, Stiles maps the diversity of Texas counties, Galbraith on efforts to recycle plastic bags and Hamilton on calls for "entrepreneurship" at the University of Texas: The best of our best content from March 28 to April 1, 2011. Full Story
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Travis County District Court Judge Stephen Yelenosky this afternoon denied the request of two death row inmates to temporarily halt executions with Texas' new lethal injection drug. Lawyers for Cleve Foster and Humberto Leal said they would immediately appeal the judge's decision. Full Story
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Jennifer Stayton of KUT News talked with author Sherry Matthews about her new book on the Waco State Home, a troubled youth facility that operated until the 1970s. Matthews says that for some alumni of the youth facility, life there remains too painful a memory to recount. Full Story
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Texas' decision to change one of the drugs used for lethal injections has sparked a lawsuit, calls for federal investigation of the criminal justice department and pleas from the drugmaker not to use its product for executions. Full Story
The Senate Criminal Justice Committee today approved a controversial bill that would allow students to carry concealed handguns on college campuses. Full Story
Lawyers for two Texas death row inmates today asked state and federal law enforcement to investigate whether prison officials illegally obtained death penalty drugs the state used in nearly all of its 466 executions. Full Story
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The U.S. government announced today it is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information that leads to the arrest and possible conviction of the assailants who murdered a U.S. federal agent in Mexico last month. Full Story
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Two death row inmates sued the state today, arguing that the decision to use a new lethal injection drug was made too secretly and too hastily. Full Story