The multimillion-dollar influx of state police on the border is stemming the tide of illegal immigration, but parts of the operation are largely inefficient, the state’s top law enforcement officer told the House budget-writing committee.
Criminal Justice
Get the latest Texas Tribune coverage on criminal justice, including crime, courts, law enforcement, and reforms shaping the state’s justice system.
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Criminal Justice
Patrick Wants $12 Million to Keep Guard on Border
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Tuesday that drug cartels are ramping up efforts as the Texas National Guard is preparing to leave the Rio Grande Valley next month. He’s hoping to extend the Guard’s presence in the region.
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Criminal Justice
Senate Bill Would Expand DNA Testing for Criminal Cases
Michael Morton, who spent nearly 25 years in prison for murdering his wife before DNA evidence exonerated him, said he wouldn’t have had access under current testing requirements to the evidence that set him free. A new bill by state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, would expand access to DNA testing in criminal cases.
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Criminal Justice
“American Sniper” Trial in Texas Tests Limits of Sympathy for Vets
This week, jury selection began in the trial of Eddie Ray Routh for the murder of Chris Kyle, whose career as a soldier in Iraq (and “the most lethal sniper in U.S. history”) is dramatized in the film “American Sniper.”
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Criminal Justice
Abbott, Patrick Offer Different Forecasts for Open Carry
A week after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said there weren’t enough votes in the Texas Senate to pass legislation allowing the open carrying of handguns, Gov. Greg Abbott said on the radio that he thinks such legislation will pass.
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Criminal Justice
Video: McRaven on Campus Carry
At our 2/5 conversation, Admiral William McRaven, the chancellor of the University of Texas System, explained his opposition to campus carry legislation.
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Criminal Justice
Member of “Texas Seven” Executed
Donald Keith Newbury, 52, who was part of the “Texas Seven” gang of prison fugitives, was executed Wednesday night for the 2000 murder of an Irving police officer.
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Criminal Justice
Bills Require Warnings for Immigrants About Pleas
Texas doesn’t require magistrate judges to tell immigrants how their pleas on misdemeanor charges might affect their immigration status. Legislation that would change that failed two years ago, but the sponsors are back for another try.
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Criminal Justice
Obama Recruits Texans to Help Sell Immigration Plan
Texas lawmakers may be leading the charge to derail President Obama’s executive action on immigration. But the White House wants it known: Not everyone in the Lone Star State wants to scrap the policy.
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Criminal Justice
Public Integrity Unit Chief Testifies Before State Senators
The head of the state’s public integrity unit told Senate lawmakers on Monday that Gov. Rick Perry’s veto of its funding in 2013 forced the division — which investigates public corruption — to lay off staff and give up cases.
