The latest criminal justice news from The Texas Tribune.
Under Senate Bill 23, all felonies involving a gun would incur a mandatory 10-year prison sentence. It’s meant to curb crime, despite the lack of correlation between harsher sentences and crime rates. Full Story
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Plagued by decades of scandals over sexual and physical abuse of children, the Texas Juvenile Justice Department is at a crossroads. Full Story
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Brown’s appeals ran out after almost 30 years on death row. Defense attorneys claim Harris County prosecutors hid evidence pointing to another suspect in the 1992 shooting deaths of four people in a Houston drug house. Full Story
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Lawyers for four former employees who accused the attorney general of firing them for reporting alleged crimes to authorities say Paxton won’t agree to finalizing the deadline by the end of this legislative session. Full Story
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At issue is whether Thomas, who gouged out his eyes after confessing to a 2004 triple murder in Sherman, is competent to be executed. Full Story
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In 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Gideon v. Wainwright that the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of a right to a lawyer applies to criminal defendants. Together with the Texas Indigent Defense Commission, The Texas Tribune hosted a series of conversations Friday on public defense in Texas. Full Story
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Green’s appellate attorneys unsuccessfully argued that his intellectual impairments and mental health status made him ineligible for the death penalty. Full Story
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The bill, introduced months after the Uvalde school shooting, also allocates more funds to the state’s school safety allotment, which is money given to districts to improve campus security. Full Story
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Republican lawmakers — backed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — are working to reverse a change to state law they approved two years ago as part of a sweeping overhaul to Texas election law that included downgrading illegal voting to a misdemeanor. Full Story
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A Chinese crime operation bypassed the password clues of Texas.gov by using stolen identity information to fraudulently obtain replacement driver’s licenses. Full Story
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During a recent street racing incident, Austin residents faced long 911 wait times. City officials say they need to increase staffing for 911 call takers, but state license and background check requirements make it difficult to fill positions. Full Story
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Lawmakers lowered the penalty to a misdemeanor in 2021, but then almost immediately began discussing raising it back. Full Story
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Most of the state’s 19 mass shootings over the past six decades were carried out by men who legally possessed firearms, an investigation by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune found. Full Story
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Police often can’t tell if a cannabis vape pen is derived from marijuana or legal hemp, like the delta-8 products on display in gas stations across Texas. That doesn’t stop them from making felony arrests in high schools. Full Story
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State lawmakers have rejected dozens of bills that would have prevented people from legally obtaining weapons used in many mass shootings. Instead, they’ve made it easier for residents to get guns and harder for local governments to regulate them. Full Story
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At issue is whether Thomas, who gouged out his eyes after confessing to the 2004 murders of his estranged wife, their son and her daughter, is competent to be executed in April. Full Story
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Many relatives of Uvalde victims back bills that state Rep. Tracy King and Sen. Roland Gutierrez are pushing in the Legislature. But limits on gun access don’t fare well at the Capitol. Full Story
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Since Jacoby Pillow’s death last month, at least three others have died at Harris County Jail. And the year before, the jail hit a record high of 27 in-custody deaths. Full Story
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The families say they were shut out of discussions over the deal between the federal government and Boeing. U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor said courts don’t have authority to override it. Full Story
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The military resisted reforming its justice system for decades. Major congressional changes passed in 2021 promised to overhaul that system — but experts say they may have just made it more complicated. Full Story
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