The latest criminal justice news from The Texas Tribune.
A new word cloud visualizes the bills filed so far according to their Texas Legislative Council assigned categories. After education, which accounts for more than a quarter of the bills, the top categories are elections, criminal procedure, vehicles and traffic, and taxation. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/all_bills.JPG)
A wide-ranging coalition of education, criminal justice, religious and charitable groups today called on Texas lawmakers to use more than a machete to balance the state budget this year. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/college-budgetcuts.jpg)
The jail conditions expert and professor at the University of Texas' LBJ School of Public Affairs on why maintaining treatment programs that keep offenders in their communities and reducing some of the harsh, long-term jail sentences often doled out in Texas' notoriously tough criminal justice system could be more cost-efficient and allow Texas to close prisons. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Deitch_sized.jpg)
Texas's bid to suspend a federal efforts to regulate greenhouse gases hit another roadblock today, when the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals turned down the state's request for a stay of a move to force states to implement federal plans. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/583b2894d6d37b86538ad79fd2454e75/.SmokeStacks008.jpg)
An exclusive excerpt from "Incendiary," a forthcoming documentary about the Cameron Todd Willingham case. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/Screen_shot_2010-12-22_at_2.22.39_PM.png)
Ramshaw on how hard it is to sue over emergency room mistakes, Galbraith on paying for roads in an era of fuel-efficient vehicles, Aguilar on a disagreement about gun regulation, my interview with tort reformer Dick Trabulsi, Grissom on Perry's parsimonious pardoning, Hu and Chang interactively look at House committee chairs, M. Smith on an election challenge and who'll settle it, Ramshaw and Stiles on Dallas County's blue streak and Hamilton on a Valley school district that leads the nation in preparing kids for college: The best of our best from Dec. 20 to 24, 2010. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/tribweek-dec242010.png)
Should Texas gun sellers be required to notify the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives when they sell two or more semi-automatic rifles to one person within a five-day period? The feds, desperate to stem the flow of weapons into Mexico, say yes. Gun rights advocates like Gov. Rick Perry say such a policy would be misguided. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/LongRifle.jpg)
Pardoning has become a holiday tradition for governors and the president, who each year choose a fortunate few whose criminal records will get wiped clean. But experts say state and national leaders are granting fewer pardons these days — and doing it in a way that undermines a critical criminal justice process that allows rehabilitated offenders to lead normal lives. Gov. Rick Perry, for example, has granted only about 180 pardons since 2001. By contrast, Bill Clements issued more than 800 pardons during his eight-year tenure, while Mark White issued nearly 500 in four years. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/829ae2b77d704137c3f774bac1c7c5ff/BD%20INC%20Perry%20Points%20Serious%202010)
Three years after a crackdown that resulted in federal conspiracy charges against Laredo's former police chief, the city's electronic gaming parlors are back — most tucked in nondescript strip malls. Their resurgence owes to their popularity, says state Rep. Richard Peña Raymond, D-Laredo, who has offered a solution: Let the voters decide. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Gambling_8Liner.jpg)
Ramsey on what a GOP supermajority means, Ramshaw on a crime victim not eligible for crime victims' compensation, M. Smith on grave matters and state regulation, Hamilton on the college pipeline at San Antonio's Jefferson High, Hu on a senator's anticlimactic return, Grissom on the coming closure of juvenile lockups, Aguilar on the return of residents to their drug-war-torn Mexican town, Galbraith on next session's energy agenda, Philpott on the legal fight over federal health care reform and Stiles on the travel expenses of House members: The best of our best from Dec. 13 to 17, 2010. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Tribweeek_12_13_2010.jpg)
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. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/guerra-sanbenito001.jpg)
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. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/ThomasReeve001.jpg)
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. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Nov2010.008.png)
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. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TT-Audio.png)
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. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/healthcare.jpg)
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. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/80f7bc6b7209f0a1c12a2ff8a3ae130e/BD%20INC%20Abbott%202010)
The state's new chief appellate lawyer is as new to the Texas bar as he is to the job. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2016/05/03/ScalesofJustice.jpg)
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. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/103109-terrhaute-gurney-.jpg)
James Ho said today that he's leaving the post he's held as Texas solicitor general since 2008. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Gavel003.jpg)
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. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/4a2363ecf0ccf3d322ecc544636f1bf7/.Man%20Smokes%20Marijuana)