GOP candidate Lauren Davis’ campaign surfaced a Waco police report about a prank for which Jenkins apologized in 2010. He says he was only wearing camouflage at the time.
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
Connecticut jury orders Alex Jones to pay nearly $1 billion to Sandy Hook families
The award is the largest the Texas conspiracy theorist has been ordered to pay as part of three defamation lawsuits against him for falsely claiming that the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, was a hoax.
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Criminal Justice
East Texas nonprofit hopes small loans and job training will ease the hardships of leaving prison
Formerly incarcerated Texans face numerous barriers to restart their lives. Without help from the state, the Next Chapter program in Lufkin is helping people released from prison get back on their feet.
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Criminal Justice
Rodney Reed pleads before U.S. Supreme Court for DNA testing that might establish his innocence
The nation’s high court heard arguments Tuesday on whether Reed can seek DNA testing of crucial evidence in the 1996 murder of Stacey Stites in Bastrop County.
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Criminal Justice
U.S. Supreme Court rejects request to review Texas death row inmate Andre Thomas’ case
Thomas’ attorneys appealed saying that some members of the jury that sentenced him had expressed racist views. In their dissent, the court’s three liberal justices wrote that Thomas’ conviction and death sentence were unconstitutional.
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Criminal Justice
Texas may delay trial for alleged Walmart shooter if federal prosecutors want to seek death penalty
A state district judge in El Paso said Tuesday that he’ll wait to see what federal prosecutors decide in their case before moving ahead with a state trial for the man accused of killing 23 shoppers in 2019.
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Criminal Justice
Texas bans many proven tools for helping drug users. Advocates are handing them out anyway.
As overdoses skyrocketed amid the pandemic and the fentanyl crisis, advocates across the state are working discreetly to distribute these supplies as part of a practice to combat substance use disorder known as harm reduction.
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El Paso shooting
Chaos surrounding rookie El Paso DA Yvonne Rosales fuels concerns about Walmart massacre prosecution
Mistakes and backbiting have engulfed the El Paso County district attorney’s office. Some question whether she is competent to handle one of the most high-profile death penalty cases in recent Texas history.
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Uvalde school shooting
Uvalde school district suspends its entire police department, and superintendent announces retirement plans
All of the department’s activities were suspended for an unspecified period of time, and two employees were placed on administrative leave after it was revealed this week that one of the first state troopers to respond to the deadly school shooting in May was later hired as a district police officer.
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Criminal Justice
Biden is calling for marijuana possession pardons. But that doesn’t mean it’ll happen in Texas.
Biden’s federal pardons will help at least 6,500 people, though most possession crimes are charged at the state level. Gov. Greg Abbott hasn’t yet said whether he’ll follow suit. Gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke was quick to support the measure.
