In October 2001, Marcos Guerra’s wife and three daughters laid him to rest at the cemetery in San Benito where members of his family had been buried for three decades. Almost four years later, they were at his graveside again, burying him a second time, after the cemetery moved his body without their permission and exhumed his remains. Now the family’s legal battle with one of the largest funeral services providers in North America, which has faced class-action lawsuits in several states, has reached the Texas Supreme Court — and is raising questions about the state’s regulation of after-life care.
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
Crime Doesn’t Pay
British tourist Thomas Reeve’s murder in an Amarillo bar last fall shattered his family, which has been unable to claim financial assistance from the state’s Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund because he wasn’t a U.S. resident.
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Criminal Justice
Achieving Closure
Lawmakers, bureaucrats and criminal justice advocates all agree that the state’s trouble-ridden Texas Youth Commission ought to close down two of its correctional facilities. Like other state agencies, TYC has been asked to cut its budget for the next biennium by 10 percent, or $40 million. But no one at TYC is saying which lockups should get shuttered. “They don’t want to bite that bullet and show leadership,” says state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston.
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Audio: Abbott on Health Reform Ruling
The Virginia court ruling declaring parts of federal health care reform unconstitutional elicited plenty of reaction in Texas, which is part of a separate attempt to repeal the new law. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports.
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Diagnosis: Unconstitutional
A federal court’s ruling on Monday declaring parts of federal health care reform unconstitutional elicited plenty of reaction in Texas, which is part of a separate attempt to repeal the new law. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports.
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Criminal Justice
TribBlog: Abbott Gives Virginia Ruling Thumbs Up [Updated]
A Virginia federal district court judge’s ruling today that the individual mandate portion of the Obama health care law is unconstitutional is a “huge victory” for Texas, Attorney General Greg Abbott said in a phone interview.
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Criminal Justice
TribBlog: New SG Also New to Texas Bar [Updated]
The state’s new chief appellate lawyer is as new to the Texas bar as he is to the job.
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Criminal Justice
TribBlog: Texas Juries Gave Only 8 Death Sentences in 2010
Texas juries sentenced just eight people to death in 2010, the smallest number since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment here in 1976, according to a report published today by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.
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Criminal Justice
TribBlog: Ho (Steps) Down
James Ho said today that he’s leaving the post he’s held as Texas solicitor general since 2008.
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Criminal Justice
The Tea Pot Party?
Backers of medical marijuana laws are holding fast to hopes that the specter of an ever-encroaching government will resonate with the most energized wing of the Republican Party in the upcoming legislative session.