Texas laws more strictly regulate euthanasia of animals than the lethal injection of death row inmates, according to a report released Sunday by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas and the Center for International Human Rights at Northwestern University Law School.
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
Guest Column: The Red-Headed Exception
The authorities in Hudspeth County have realized what the rest of us have known for years: Before you start investigating the funny smell emanating from his tour bus, remember that he’s Willie Nelson. The usual rules don’t apply.
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Criminal Justice
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Tan’s wall-to-wall coverage of the budget (with more from the rest of the Trib crew, interviews with some of the freshmen seeing this up close for the first time and a map of how it works), Philpott on the similarities between budget worries in Texas and those elsewhere, M. Smith explains school finance, Ramshaw on the dwindling insurance options for orphans, Grissom on legal fights over the drugs used for state executions, Aguilar on the run-up to the debate over sanctuary cities, Stiles maps the diversity of Texas counties, Galbraith on efforts to recycle plastic bags and Hamilton on calls for “entrepreneurship” at the University of Texas: The best of our best content from March 28 to April 1, 2011.
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Criminal Justice
Judge Denies Death Penalty Drug Challenge
Travis County District Court Judge Stephen Yelenosky this afternoon denied the request of two death row inmates to temporarily halt executions with Texas’ new lethal injection drug. Lawyers for Cleve Foster and Humberto Leal said they would immediately appeal the judge’s decision.
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Criminal Justice
Execution Drug Switch Ignites Controversy
Texas’ decision to change one of the drugs used for lethal injections has sparked a lawsuit, calls for federal investigation of the criminal justice department and pleas from the drugmaker not to use its product for executions.
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Criminal Justice
A Look Back at Lives Touched by a Troubled Youth Center
Jennifer Stayton of KUT News talked with author Sherry Matthews about her new book on the Waco State Home, a troubled youth facility that operated until the 1970s. Matthews says that for some alumni of the youth facility, life there remains too painful a memory to recount.
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Criminal Justice
House Lawmakers Propose Privatizing All State Jails
House lawmakers are considering a plan to privatize all of Texas’ state jails for low-level felony offenders, a move they say could save the state up to $40 million.
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Criminal Justice
Guns on Campus Bill Heads to Senate Floor
The Senate Criminal Justice Committee today approved a controversial bill that would allow students to carry concealed handguns on college campuses.
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Criminal Justice
Lawyers Allege Texas Executes Prisoners With Illegally Obtained Drugs
Lawyers for two Texas death row inmates today asked state and federal law enforcement to investigate whether prison officials illegally obtained death penalty drugs the state used in nearly all of its 466 executions.
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Criminal Justice
U.S. Offers $5 Million Reward in ICE Murder Case
The U.S. government announced today it is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information that leads to the arrest and possible conviction of the assailants who murdered a U.S. federal agent in Mexico last month.