The death penalty and DNA testing in a 16-year-old triple murder in the Texas Panhandle. The second debate between the three Republican candidates for governor. Charter schools are having a hard time hanging on to the employees that matter the most: Teachers. The possibilities and perils of a switch to electronic medical records. A rundown of top races. Who’s giving to candidates, and how much? Social networks and politicians. Ballots: The slow reveal. And a new and highly requested feature makes its debut. The best of our best from January 23 to 29, 2010.
Courts
Stay up to date on Texas courts with in-depth coverage of major rulings, judicial elections, criminal justice, and the judges shaping state law from The Texas Tribune.
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Criminal Justice
Case Open: The Investigation
It took a crew of eight Northwestern University students to bring national attention to questions about Hank Skinner’s death sentence. But his legal pleas for more DNA testing of crime scene evidence — and his lawsuit against the Gray County district attorney — have gone nowhere. Unless the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes, he’ll be executed on Feburary 24.
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Criminal Justice
Case Open
Hank Skinner is set to be executed for a 1993 murder he’s always maintained he didn’t commit. He wants the state to test whether his DNA matches evidence found at the scene, but prosecutors say the time to contest his conviction has come and gone. He has less than a month to change their minds.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
On the Records: Data Decisions
Some deep-pocketed trial lawyers didn’t make the Twenty Who Gave Plenty list. Why not?
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Twenty Who Gave Plenty
Houston homebuilder Bob Perry tops the list of the biggest donors to Texas candidates in the last half of 2009. McAllen developer Alonzo Cantu and Dallas businessman Ross Perot Sr. also gave large sums.
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Criminal Justice
Guest Column: The 2010 Agenda: Open Government
Compared with other states, Texas alternates between merely OK and downright bad in rankings of how transparently government bodies conduct open meetings and respond to requests for public information. But we can fix that.
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Criminal Justice
On the Records: Per-Capita Money Maps
The governor’s race candidates fill their campaign coffers disproportionately from some rural areas, according to a per-capita calculation. Each Dallas resident gave $1 to the race in 2009, for example, while those in Blanco donated $57.
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Criminal Justice
TribBlog: Abbott launches trafficking task force
Twenty percent of the nation’s 17,000 human trafficking victims each year come through Texas, and Attorney General Greg Abbott said today the state should take the lead in collaboration among agencies to fight the scourge of modern-day slavery.
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Criminal Justice
TribBlog: Special Master Recommends Reprimand for Keller
Sharon Keller, the presiding judge of the state’s highest criminal court, will not be removed from the bench following a trial and review by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
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Criminal Justice
What Does Debra Want?
Now that she’ll join Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison on stage at the second GOP debate — now that she’s cracked spoiler-worthy double digits in the latest poll and will fundraise, Ron Paul-style, through an online “money bomb” — it’s fair to ask what longshot gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina is in it for.