More than 120 college students worked 12,300 hours-plus on Innocence Project of Texas cases from 2007 to 2009, according to the Task Force on Indigent Defense. As student participation has increased, so have exonerations.
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
Keller for the Defense
Judge Sharon Keller has been pilloried as the villain of the Texas criminal justice system, but supporters credit the chief of the state’s highest criminal court with working to ensure fair trials for impoverished defendants.
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Criminal Justice
TribBlog: Getting Drunks Off the Road
The Senate Committee on Criminal Justice met today to talk about ways to stop Texans from getting behind the wheel after imbibing. Judges, police and even a third-time DWI offender told lawmakers some Texas drunken driving laws could use some stiffening, while other measures take punishment too far.
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Criminal Justice
On the Records: How Public Servants Make Their Money
The Texas Ethics Commission recently released more than 3,000 personal financial statements — documents that detail state officials’ financial interests and liabilities. Read, download or embed them with our new application.
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Criminal Justice
Same As the Old Boss
Ciudad Juárez’s mayoral election has Texas’ economic leaders intrigued as the border city plans to bid its current mayor farewell in October. For residents in the city plagued by cartel violence, little change is expected, and many brace for continued bloodshed.
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Criminal Justice
Brad Levenson: The TT Interview
After a series of investigative reports revealed serious problems with the quality of legal representation for indigent defendants on Texas death row, lawmakers created the Office of Capital Writs. California lawyer Brad Levenson will be moving to Texas to open the new office and attempt to restore some confidence in the state’s busy system of capital punishment.
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Criminal Justice
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Grissom, Hamilton, and Philpott on the Texas Democratic Party’s state convention, the two-step, the forecast, and the ticket; Galbraith on the political and environmental battle between state and federal environmental regulators, and on a new age of nukes in Texas; Burnson on signs of the times in San Antonio; Ramshaw on hackers breaking into the state’s confidential cancer database; Aguilar’s interview with Katherine Glass, the Libertarian Party’s nominee for governor; Acosta on efforts to stop ‘Murderabilia’ items that sell because of the association with killers; Ramshaw and the Houston Chronicle’s Terri Langford on the criminal arrest records of workers in state-funded foster care centers; Hu on accusations that state Sunset examiners missed problems with workers compensation regulators because they didn’t ask the right questions of the right people; Ramsey and Stiles on the rush to rake in campaign cash, and on political races that could be won or lost because of voter attraction to Libertarian candidates; and Aguilar’s fresh take on South Texas’ reputation for corruption. The best of our best from June 28 to July 3, 2010.
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Criminal Justice
Brad Levenson Clip 10
Brad Levenson, newly hired director of the soon-to-be-opened Texas Office of Capital Writs
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Criminal Justice
Brad Levenson Clip 9
Brad Levenson, newly hired director of the soon-to-be-opened Texas Office of Capital Writs
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Criminal Justice
Brad Levenson Clip 7
Brad Levenson, newly hired director of the soon-to-be-opened Texas Office of Capital Writs