More than 70 Texas prisoners are 3 days into a hunger strike protesting harsh solitary confinement practices
Prisoners have refused food to protest practices that have kept more than 500 people in isolation for more than a decade. Full Story
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![The Gurney Unit prison, operated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Tennessee Colony, in 2016.]()
Credit: Martin do Nascimento for The Texas Tribune -
The fringe ideology of “constitutional sheriffs” is attracting believers within Texas law enforcement
Some 50 Texas sheriffs and numerous elected officials have attended trainings on the unsupported notion that sheriffs can single-handedly overrule state and federal law. The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, which offered state peace officers credit for the seminars, is now investigating. Full Story
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![From left: Michigan Sheriff Dar Leaf sits next to Coryell Co. Sheriff Scott Williams during a news conference in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 12, 2022.]()
Credit: REUTERS/Bridget Bennett -
Questions about validity of shaken baby syndrome not enough to give Texas death row inmate new trial, court rules
Robert Roberson was sentenced to death for killing his 2-year-old daughter. Experts have since backtracked on the science used in part to win his conviction. Full Story
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![Robert Roberson seeks a new trial for the 2003 conviction of the murder of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, in Palestine, Texas on August 14, 2018.]()
Credit: Shelby Knowles for The Texas Tribune -
Uvalde DA gets initial state police report on school shooting but doesn’t expect full investigation for months
The preliminary report has not been made public by either the district attorney’s office or the state. The Texas Rangers are conducting a criminal investigation into the shooting at Robb Elementary. Full Story
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![Texas Department of Public Safety, Steve McCraw listens to a speaker at a Public Safety Commission Meeting in Austin on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022. During public testimony, families of the victims of the Robb Elementary Shooting in Uvalde called for DPS Director Steve McCraw to resign.]()
Credit: Sergio Flores for The Texas Tribune -
Texas executes Robert Fratta after high courts reject challenges to expired lethal injection drugs
Fratta was convicted in the 1994 murder-for-hire of his wife. Lawyers unsuccessfully challenged Texas’ routine of extending the expiration dates of its lethal drugs, a practice begun when many pharmacies began refusing to provide doses for executions. Full Story
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![The view of Texas' execution chamber from a witness viewing room.]()
Credit: Texas Department of Criminal Justice -
U.S. Supreme Court tells Texas to reconsider executing man convicted with faulty DNA evidence
Areli Escobar was sentenced to death in 2011 for an Austin murder, but even prosecutors now agree his conviction relied heavily on faulty DNA testing by the discredited Travis County crime lab. Full Story
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![The U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 4, 2022.]()
Credit: Jason Garza for The Texas Tribune -
Texas prisoners launching hunger strike to protest state’s harsh solitary confinement practices
Hundreds of prisoners may participate in the protest beginning Tuesday, the first day of the state’s legislative session. Texas often keeps prisoners in solitary confinement for years or decades. Full Story
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![Telford prison in New Boston on March 21, 2018]()
Credit: Shelby Knowles for The Texas Tribune -
Watch: After the Uvalde shooting, one Texas school district increases focus on mental health
Round Rock ISD is thought to be among the first school districts in Texas where social workers and police officers work directly with one another to provide mental health support to students. Full Story
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![The Robb Elementary School memorial for the victims of the Uvalde mass school shooting on June 15, 2022.]()
Credit: Kylie Cooper/The Texas Tribune -
State police terminate another officer for response to Uvalde mass shooting
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw accused the suspended Texas Ranger of failing to perform his duty during the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School. Full Story
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![Texas Ranger Christopher Ryan Kindell outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on May 24, 2022, when 21 people — 19 children and two adults — were killed by a gunman. Kindell was fired by DPS Thursday and said he plans to appeal.]()
Credit: Texas Parks and Wildlife bodycam -
Broken hearts lead to broken traditions in Uvalde as Mata family celebrates first holidays without Tess
The Matas never celebrated Day of the Dead before; this year they built an altar at the grave of 10-year-old Tess, surrounded by family. For Thanksgiving and Christmas, they broke their traditions. Full Story
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![The Mata's decrorate Tess' grave for Christmas at Hillcrest Memorial Cemetery in Uvalde on Dec. 22, 2022. They placed two light up miniature christmas trees on either side of the tree that is growing at Tess' headstone.]()
Credit: Evan L'Roy/The Texas Tribune -
Texas GOP lawmakers warming to opioid harm-reduction policies they once opposed
Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republicans have expressed support for legalizing fentanyl test strips, which help users identify whether the drugs they are planning on taking contain the deadly synthetic opioid. Full Story
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![A fentanyl test kit in a storage unit in Dallas on Aug. 24, 2022.]()
Credit: Emil Lippe for The Texas Tribune -
Criminal cases in South Texas are unraveling because of a Texas Ranger’s suspension after the Uvalde shooting
After the Texas Department of Public Safety suspended Texas Ranger Christopher Ryan Kindell, one of hundreds of officers who responded to the May 24 mass shooting, felony cases he investigated are in jeopardy and experts have questioned the justification for his suspension. Full Story
![Texas Ranger Christopher Ryan Kindell outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on May 24, 2022, when 21 people — 19 children and two adults — were killed by a gunman. Kindell was fired by DPS Thursday and said he plans to appeal.]()
Credit: Texas Parks and Wildlife bodycam -
Veterans groups plead Afghan soldier’s asylum case in letter to Biden
After surviving the fallout from a war in his home country and a global trek, Abdul Wasi Safi was arrested at the Texas-Mexico border on a misdemeanor charge, delaying his chance for asylum. Full Story
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![Abdul Wasi Safi, second from left, stands with his hands behind his back at ease for a photo with others in his Afghan special forces unit. He wears the rank and insignia of a Dvahomi baridman, or second lieutenant.]()
Credit: Courtesy of Sami-ullah Safi -
U.S. House Jan. 6 committee investigated four Texas conservative figures, transcripts reveal
The figures, who include leaders of right-wing groups and political allies of the Trump White House, largely pleaded the Fifth Amendment to questions about the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol. Full Story
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![Pro-Trump demonstrators gathered in Freedom Plaza to protest the Presidential election results in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5, 2021.]()
Credit: Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA via REUTERS -
Ex-Fort Worth cop sentenced to nearly 12 years for manslaughter of Atatiana Jefferson
A jury found Aaron Dean guilty of manslaughter last week for the fatal shooting of Jefferson, a 28-year-old Black woman, while she was babysitting her nephew in a family home. Full Story
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![Aaron Dean, a former Fort Worth police officer, enters Tarrant County's 396th District Court on Dec. 15, 2022. Dean was sentenced Tuesday to more than 11 years in prison for the 2019 manslaughter of Atatiana Jefferson in 2019.]()
Credit: Amanda McCoy/TNS/ABACA via REUTERS -
On the day of the Uvalde shooting, her school bus became a makeshift ambulance
Sylvia Uriegas transported children who were wounded inside Robb Elementary School to the hospital. The terror of that day still haunts her. Full Story
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![Sylvia Uriegas]()
Credit: Bekah McNeel/The 74 -
Records reveal medical response further delayed care for Uvalde shooting victims
Previously unreleased video, audio and interviews show for the first time how the medical response faltered after police finally confronted the Robb Elementary shooter. Full Story
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![The scene outside Robb Elementary School minutes after officers killed the shooter who had been occupying two adjoining classrooms.]()
Credit: Helicopter footage gathered by the Texas Rangers and obtained by The Texas Tribune, The Washington Post and ProPublica. Graphics by Imogen Piper/The Washington Post -
Former Fort Worth police officer found guilty of manslaughter of Atatiana Jefferson
A jury on Thursday found Aaron Dean guilty of manslaughter for shooting Jefferson while she babysat her nephew in her mother’s home in 2019. Full Story
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![Aaron Dean reacts on the stand while testifying on Monday, Dec. 12, 2022, in Fort Worth, Texas. Dean, a former Fort Worth police officer, fatally shot Atatiana Jefferson in 2019 during an open structure call at her home.]()
Credit: Amanda McCoy/TNS/ABACA via REUTERS -
Gov. Greg Abbott calls for five-year mandatory sentence for human smugglers
Abbott is making his pitch ahead of the upcoming legislative session. Full Story
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![Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at a press conference with nine other governors regarding the southern border at Anzalduas Park in Mission on Oct. 6, 2021.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
Chronically understaffed Texas prisons set stage for prison bus escape and massacre of family
Investigative reviews by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and independent consultants found the severely short-staffed prison routinely bypassed crucial security checks, leading to a convicted murderer’s escape. Full Story
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![Texas Department of Criminal Justice William G. McConnell Unit at Chase Field in Beeville in 2013.]()
Credit: Jennifer Whitney for The Texas Tribune