The military resisted reforming its justice system for decades. Major congressional changes passed in 2021 promised to overhaul that system — but experts say they may have just made it more complicated.
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
Texas DPS scraps plan for $1.2 billion active-shooter training facility
The Texas Department of Public Safety is instead asking lawmakers for $381.5 million to upgrade its current facilities with better technology, dormitories and cafeteria for trainees from across the state.
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Uvalde school shooting
Texas DPS won’t discipline any more officers for Uvalde shooting response
The Department of Public Safety has finished its investigation into how officers responded to Texas’ deadliest school shooting. The agency has fired one officer and is in the process of firing another.
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Criminal Justice
Appeals court ruling says alleged domestic abusers have a constitutional right to keep their guns
Advocates for domestic violence victims were stunned by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, which continued a string of court decisions citing the Second Amendment to erase gun restrictions.
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Criminal Justice
Texans with mental illnesses are dying in Houston-area jails
A Houston Landing investigation found that nearly 180 people in Texas had been flagged as potentially mentally ill but died in jail instead of getting the care they needed.
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Criminal Justice
Texas executes John Balentine for killing three teens in Amarillo
Though he confessed to the murders, Balentine’s lawyers argued he might have been spared a death sentence if not for pervasive racial bias at his trial.
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Criminal Justice
Man who killed 23 at El Paso Walmart pleads guilty to hate crimes
The gunman was mirroring rhetoric that continues to be used by some conservative political and media figures, saying that large-scale migration from south of the border is an “invasion” and part of a “great replacement” of white people by people of color.
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Texas Legislature 2023
State Sen. Charles Schwertner arrested on suspicion of drunken driving
Schwertner, a Georgetown Republican, was booked into the Travis County jail at 2:12 a.m.
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Uvalde school shooting
After botched response to Uvalde massacre, Texas senator wants better mass shooting training for public safety entities
State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, wants to prevent communication breakdowns like the ones that occurred in the botched response to the Uvalde school shooting.
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Criminal Justice
Texas executes Wesley Ruiz despite ongoing fight over state’s use of old lethal injection drugs
Ruiz was convicted in the 2007 shooting death of Dallas police Senior Cpl. Mark Nix after a high-speed chase.