County Used Doctor After Methods Challenged
Harris County paid a forensic psychologist who was reprimanded earlier this month more than $300,000 to test defendants for intellectual disabilities from 2002 until 2008. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/DeathRow-1-fix.jpg)
-
![Dr. George Denkowski conducted psychological exams for more than a dozen current death row inmates. 1) Anthony Pierce 2) Virgilio Maldonado 3) Calvin Hunter 4) John Matamoros 5) Derrick Charles 6) Kim Ly Lim 7) Coy Wesbrook 8) Joel Escobedo 9) Jamie McCoskey 10) Warren Rivers 11) Tomas Gallo 12) Steven Butler 13) Alfred Brown]()
Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman -
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Hamilton on Victoria's efforts to divorce the University of Houston, Ramshaw on a disagreement between right-to-life groups over laws governing when life ends, E. Smith's TribLive interview with Sen. Kel Seliger and Rep. Burt Solomons on redistricting, Aguilar's interview with the mayor of Juárez, Tan on the continuing hunt for money to buy down budget cuts, Grissom on a psychologist who found more than a dozen inmates mentally competent to face the death penalty, Stiles and yours truly on the House redistricting maps and Galbraith on cutting or killing a tax break for high-cost natural gas producers: The best of our best content from April 11 to 15, 2011. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Tribweek_0415_2011.jpg)
![Article thumbnail]()
Credit: Todd Wiseman -
Psychologist Reprimanded in Death Penalty Cases
A psychologist who examined 14 inmates now on Texas’ death row — and two others who were subsequently executed — and found them intellectually competent enough to face the death penalty has agreed never to perform such evaluations again. Full Story
![Dr. George Denkowski conducted psychological exams for more than a dozen current death row inmates. 1) Anthony Pierce 2) Virgilio Maldonado 3) Calvin Hunter 4) John Matamoros 5) Derrick Charles 6) Kim Ly Lim 7) Coy Wesbrook 8) Joel Escobedo 9) Jamie McCoskey 10) Warren Rivers 11) Tomas Gallo 12) Steven Butler 13) Alfred Brown]()
Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman -
Interactive: Annotated Forensic Commission Report
The Texas Forensic Science Commission is meeting to discuss a draft report on the controversial arson convictions and death sentences of Cameron Todd Willingham and Ernest Ray Willis. Read and search the report here. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/110709_bradley_001_jv.png)
![John Bradley, left, is the new chair of the Texas Forensic Science Commission. Cameron Todd Willingham, right, was executed for setting a house fire that killed his three daughters.]()
Credit: Jacob Villanueva -
Cameron Todd Willingham: A Timeline
Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004, convicted of igniting the 1991 blaze that destroyed his home and killed his three young daughters. Click here for a timeline of the major events in the Willingham saga. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TWillingham-LeadArt_2.png)
![Article thumbnail]()
Credit: Graphic by Ben Hasson -
Supreme Court Stays First Pentobarbital Execution
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a 30-day stay for death row inmate Cleve Foster, who was scheduled tonight to become the first Texas inmate executed using the state's new three-drug lethal injection cocktail. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/syringes0001.png)
![Article thumbnail]()
-
Appeals Court Denies Request to Delay Execution
The 3rd Court of Appeals today denied two death row inmates' request to stop the state from using a new lethal injection drug. Full Story
![Article thumbnail]()
-
ACLU: Texas Law Protects Lizards More Than Humans
Texas laws more strictly regulate euthanasia of animals than the lethal injection of death row inmates, according to a report released Sunday by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas and the Center for International Human Rights at Northwestern University Law School. Full Story
![Article thumbnail]()
-
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Tan's wall-to-wall coverage of the budget (with more from the rest of the Trib crew, interviews with some of the freshmen seeing this up close for the first time and a map of how it works), Philpott on the similarities between budget worries in Texas and those elsewhere, M. Smith explains school finance, Ramshaw on the dwindling insurance options for orphans, Grissom on legal fights over the drugs used for state executions, Aguilar on the run-up to the debate over sanctuary cities, Stiles maps the diversity of Texas counties, Galbraith on efforts to recycle plastic bags and Hamilton on calls for "entrepreneurship" at the University of Texas: The best of our best content from March 28 to April 1, 2011. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Txtribweek_20110401.jpg)
![Article thumbnail]()
Credit: Illustration by Muliadi Soenaryo -
Judge Denies Death Penalty Drug Challenge
Travis County District Court Judge Stephen Yelenosky this afternoon denied the request of two death row inmates to temporarily halt executions with Texas' new lethal injection drug. Lawyers for Cleve Foster and Humberto Leal said they would immediately appeal the judge's decision. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Lethal-Injection_Split.jpg)
![Article thumbnail]()
-
Execution Drug Switch Ignites Controversy
Texas' decision to change one of the drugs used for lethal injections has sparked a lawsuit, calls for federal investigation of the criminal justice department and pleas from the drugmaker not to use its product for executions. Full Story
![Article thumbnail]()
-
Lawyers Allege Texas Executes Prisoners With Illegally Obtained Drugs
Lawyers for two Texas death row inmates today asked state and federal law enforcement to investigate whether prison officials illegally obtained death penalty drugs the state used in nearly all of its 466 executions. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/103109-terrhaute-gurney-.jpg)
![This gurney is used to perform executions at Terre Haute by lethal injection.]()
-
Death Row Inmates Sue Over Lethal Injection Drug
Two death row inmates sued the state today, arguing that the decision to use a new lethal injection drug was made too secretly and too hastily. Full Story
![Article thumbnail]()
-
AUDIO SLIDESHOW: Touring the Texas Prison Museum
Former "Walls Unit" warden Jim Willett narrates a photographic tour of the Texas Prison Museum, where he is the executive director. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/Screen_shot_2011-03-25_at_5.43.30_PM.png)
![Article thumbnail]()
Credit: Caleb Bryant Miller -
Looking Back on a Life as a Death House Warden
Jim Willett had not intended to spend the better part of his adult life working in Texas’ sprawling prison system. But the business student turned prison guard worked 30 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and oversaw 89 executions. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TxTrib_TexasPrisonMuseum_CBM15.jpg)
![Jim Willett is the director of the Texas Prison Museum and was a warden at the Walls Unit who oversaw 89 executions by lethal injection. He sits in a replica cell within the museum.]()
-
Texas Decides on Substitute Execution Drug
Cleve Foster will be the first Texas inmate to receive the anesthetic drug pentobarbital — instead of sodium thiopental — in the three-drug cocktail that will be used in his execution on April 5. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/needles_lethalinjection.jpg)
![Hypodermic needles.]()
-
Execution Set for April, but State Out of Key Drug
The next execution is scheduled to take place April 5 — less than a month from now — but the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has not yet decided which drug it will use to replace sodium thiopental, one of three used in the state's execution protocol. Full Story
![Article thumbnail]()
-
The Weekly TribCast: Episode 69
On this week's episode, Evan, Reeve, Ben and Brandi discuss Gov. Rick Perry's Twitter feed, the state's changing demographics and issues of innocence. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TT-TribCast-002.png)
![Article thumbnail]()
-
Rev. Carroll Pickett: The TT Interview
Rev. Carroll Pickett holds the world record for witnessing the most state executions as a chaplain. He saw 95 men die by lethal injection during his career as the death house chaplain. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/Screen_shot_2011-02-28_at_1.24.39_PM.png)
![Article thumbnail]()
Credit: Brandi Grissom -
Rev. Carroll Pickett: The TT Interview
The onetime death house chaplain on what it was like to witness the most state executions of anyone in his job (95, by lethal injection), what changed his mind about the death penalty and why lawmakers should continue to fund the chaplain program. Full Story