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Jolie McCullough was a reporter at The Texas Tribune from 2015 to 2023. She began as a data visualization journalist and then reported on criminal justice policy, ranging from policing and courts to prisons and the death penalty. She joined the Tribune from the Albuquerque Journal, her hometown newspaper. She previously worked at the Arizona Republic and is a graduate of Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
The federal death penalty hasn't been carried out since 2003. Now the U.S. attorney general wants to adopt the method used in Texas executions to put five men to death. Full Story
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Prosecutors and crime lab scientists were scrambling to find a solution after a change in the state's definition of marijuana imperiled criminal cases. Full Story
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A law legalizing hemp changed the definition of marijuana, causing district attorneys across the state to drop low-level possession cases and stop accepting new ones. Full Story
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The new Criminal Justice Reform Caucus in the Texas House will set its sights on changes in 2021. Full Story
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Many prosecutors say the way Gov. Greg Abbott and lawmakers redefined marijuana requires new lab testing to prove it’s different from recently legalized hemp. The situation has created a patchwork of consequences for people caught with pot. Full Story
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The new law changed the definition of marijuana, and prosecutors and crime labs say they don't have the resources to test if a substance is legal hemp or marijuana. Full Story
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The state's two-year budget provided $84 million to increase salaries for correctional officers and other prison employees as the Texas Department of Criminal Justice faces nearly 4,000 empty guard positions. Full Story
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A Texas Tribune study analyzed 560 cases from four Texas counties to shine a light on how the controversial practice of civil asset forfeiture is used by law enforcement. Full Story
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Negotiators in the House and Senate couldn't come to an agreement on a bill addressing how Texas handles capital murder defendants who may be intellectually disabled. In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executing people with intellectual disabilities amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Full Story
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Texas has been fighting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's ban on the state's attempted import of lethal injection drugs. But the Justice Department says federal law doesn't give the FDA oversight. Full Story
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