TribBlog: Still No U.S. Attorneys for Texas
The protracted U.S. attorney appointment process has claimed its latest casualty: Michael McCrum, who withdrew his name from consideration on Thursday. Full Story
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The latest criminal justice news from The Texas Tribune.
The protracted U.S. attorney appointment process has claimed its latest casualty: Michael McCrum, who withdrew his name from consideration on Thursday. Full Story
Texans weren't supposed to see Gov. Rick Perry's Sept. 15 schedule after all. The governor's office says it mistakenly released the governor's "political schedule" — as opposed to his schedule of official state business — to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White's campaign. Full Story
Gov. Rick Perry apparently keeps a more detailed schedule than what his office has previously released to the public. In what might have been a mistake, a more detailed version came out in response to an open records request from Democrat Bill White’s campaign. Full Story
How to use our latest interactive. Full Story
Navarro County prosecutor R. Lowell Thompson's request that Judge Charlie Baird recuse himself from the Cameron Todd Willingham court of inquiry hearing wasn't decided today. Full Story
A former Austin Police Department employee’s allegations of misconduct at the city's DNA Crime Lab prompted an outside audit of the lab. As Mose Buchele of KUT News reports, the results of that audit have been released. Full Story
Fifteen years ago Judge Charlie Baird was one of the justices on the state’s highest criminal court who reaffirmed Cameron Todd Willingham’s death sentence. On Wednesday, Baird is scheduled to begin a process that could determine whether that conviction and Willingham’s execution were wrong. And the prosecution objects. Full Story
If the state needs money to balance its budget, it should look first to sin taxes on gambling, alcohol and marijuana. Full Story
The Supreme Court Justice on being the first Latina on the court, whether judges should be elected, whether the all-Republican high court is too one-sided and whether Texas has seen enough tort reform. Full Story
The Supreme Court justice on being the first Latina on the court, whether the all-Republican high court is too one-sided and whether Texas has seen enough tort reform. Full Story
In the two years since Barack Obama was elected president, many Texas gun owners — afraid of losing their Second Amendment rights — have stocked up on weapons and ammo. Texans have also sought a record number of concealed handgun licenses. Coincidence? Full Story
When the state's concealed handgun statute was approved 15 years ago, lawmakers argued it would help citizens defend themselves — but residents of low-income, largely Democratic nieghborhoods aren't applying for gun permits as often as those in wealthier, more-conservative areas, according to a Texas Tribune/San Antonio Express-News analysis. Full Story
In a pattern that's playing out in San Antonio and other major metro areas in Texas, residents in low-income neighborhoods aren't taking advantage of the state's concealed-carry law as often as residents living in wealthier, more conservative areas. Full Story
Coming this Sunday: the latest collaboration between the Trib and one of the state's venerable newspapers. Full Story
The executive director of the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition on how criminal justice austerity measures demanded by state leaders would affect Texas prisons, poor people accused of crimes and the counties responsible for overseeing overcrowded jails. Full Story
Our topics this week include the renewed debate over concealed handguns on campus, the advantages of not debating or talking to the press and the hotly contested battle between Congressman Chet Edwards and Republican Bill Flores in CD-17. Full Story
A judge in Nueces County today dismissed a criminal indictment against Texas Commission on Jail Standards Executive Director Adan Muñoz, who was charged in connection with his release of information about a jailhouse suicide. Open government advocates have called the indictment outrageous. Full Story
In the shadow of a projected $21 billion budget shortfall, lawmakers told juvenile justice agencies that they must start budgeting like a cash-strapped family. Full Story
The Innocence Project of Texas will launch a campaign today not only to exonerate Sonia Cacy, a woman who experts say was wrongly convicted of setting fire to her uncle, but also to overhaul of the use of "junk science" in the prosecution of criminal cases. Full Story
Caleb Bryant Miller, a Daily Texan photographer and frequent contributor to The Texas Tribune, was home preparing for a history test news when broke of a shooting on the campus of the University of Texas, where he's enrolled as a second-semester senior. He ditched his books, grabbed his telephoto lens, hopped on his bike and headed to the Forty Acres to capture images of a tragic and frightening day. Full Story