INSIDER
Tarrant County DA wants Crystal Mason’s illegal voting conviction reinstated
Read full article: Tarrant County DA wants Crystal Mason’s illegal voting conviction reinstatedA Texas appeals court recently overturned Mason’s five-year prison sentence for casting a provisional ballot in the 2016 election while on supervised release for federal tax evasion.
State district judge recommends overturning Melissa Lucio’s death sentence
Read full article: State district judge recommends overturning Melissa Lucio’s death sentenceIn a rare joint statement, the district attorney and the defense agreed that prosecutors withheld evidence that could point to a Rio Grande Valley woman’s innocence in the death of her toddler.
Texas appeals court overturns Crystal Mason’s conviction, 5-year sentence for illegal voting
Read full article: Texas appeals court overturns Crystal Mason’s conviction, 5-year sentence for illegal votingMason gained national attention after she was convicted for voting while under supervised release for felony tax fraud. She said she didn’t know she was ineligible to vote.
Texas high court won’t force Collin County to pay prosecutors in Paxton securities fraud case
Read full article: Texas high court won’t force Collin County to pay prosecutors in Paxton securities fraud casePaxton’s securities fraud trial has been delayed for years by a number of pretrial disputes, including how much the special prosecutors should be paid.
Harris County judge sides with Ken Paxton’s prosecutors over pay dispute in securities fraud case
Read full article: Harris County judge sides with Ken Paxton’s prosecutors over pay dispute in securities fraud caseJudge Andrea Beall ruled Tuesday that the prosecutors, Brian Wice and Kent Schaffer, are owed the $300-an-hour rate by the county that they were promised when they started on the case in 2015.
Texas’ highest criminal court emphatically rejects death row inmate Rodney Reed’s claim of innocence
Read full article: Texas’ highest criminal court emphatically rejects death row inmate Rodney Reed’s claim of innocenceReed, a Black man on death row for more than 25 years, has gained international support for his claims that he did not kill 19-year-old Stacey Stites, a white woman. Another appeal over DNA testing of evidence is still pending.
Ken Paxton’s securities fraud trial will remain in Houston, court rules
Read full article: Ken Paxton’s securities fraud trial will remain in Houston, court rulesThe Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruling overturns lower-court decisions that had moved the case back to Collin County, where the suspended attorney general lives.
Questions about validity of shaken baby syndrome not enough to give Texas death row inmate new trial, court rules
Read full article: Questions about validity of shaken baby syndrome not enough to give Texas death row inmate new trial, court rulesRobert Roberson was sentenced to death for killing his 2-year-old daughter. Experts have since backtracked on the science used in part to win his conviction.
U.S. Supreme Court tells Texas to reconsider executing man convicted with faulty DNA evidence
Read full article: U.S. Supreme Court tells Texas to reconsider executing man convicted with faulty DNA evidenceAreli Escobar was sentenced to death in 2011 for an Austin murder, but even prosecutors now agree his conviction relied heavily on faulty DNA testing by the discredited Travis County crime lab.
Travis County judges can’t hear appeals from migrants arrested under Texas border security push, court rules
Read full article: Travis County judges can’t hear appeals from migrants arrested under Texas border security push, court rulesThe Court of Criminal Appeals scuttled nearly 450 cases, saying migrants arrested for trespassing in Kinney County can’t ask Austin judges to hear their appeals.
Republican dominance continues for the two highest courts in Texas
Read full article: Republican dominance continues for the two highest courts in TexasThree seats were up for election in the Texas Supreme Court, which handles civil cases, and three in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Democrats haven’t been elected to either court since the late 1990s.
What to know before voting for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judges
Read full article: What to know before voting for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judgesTexans will vote on three seats for the state’s highest criminal court in November. Here’s what the court does, who is running for office and what issues candidates are running on.
Crystal Mason’s contentious illegal voting conviction must be reconsidered, criminal appeals court says
Read full article: Crystal Mason’s contentious illegal voting conviction must be reconsidered, criminal appeals court saysMason said she didn’t know she was ineligible to vote when she cast a provisional ballot in 2016, but she was sentenced to five years in prison. Now, the Court of Criminal Appeals says an appellate court that affirmed her conviction must look again at the evidence of Mason’s intent.
Melissa Lucio’s execution halted by Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
Read full article: Melissa Lucio’s execution halted by Texas Court of Criminal AppealsAcknowledging substantive questions about Lucio’s guilt and the fairness of her conviction, the appeals court blocked her Wednesday execution so the case can be further investigated.
Texas continues imprisoning migrants without filing charges or appointing lawyers, court filings claim
Read full article: Texas continues imprisoning migrants without filing charges or appointing lawyers, court filings claimMonths after the problems became apparent, migrants are still being kept in prison in violation of state laws under Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security crackdown.
Analysis: Crime pays, politically speaking, for Texas AGs
Read full article: Analysis: Crime pays, politically speaking, for Texas AGsA Texas attorney general is a civil lawyer, mostly concerned with regulatory, tax and administrative law. But to listen to the candidates, you’d think the state’s top lawyer was some kind of cop.
Texas Republicans pressure court to reverse decision blocking attorney general from prosecuting election cases
Read full article: Texas Republicans pressure court to reverse decision blocking attorney general from prosecuting election casesRepublicans from Gov. Greg Abbott on down are pressuring the all-GOP Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to reverse a December ruling that gutted the attorney general’s power to go after election cases on his own.
Rejecting claims of innocence, judge says Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed should not get a new trial
Read full article: Rejecting claims of innocence, judge says Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed should not get a new trialDoubts over Reed’s guilt in the 1996 murder of Stacey Stites have lingered for more than 20 years and gained international attention. But a judge decided against recommending a new trial.
Texas court tosses out conviction, death sentence after discovering a prosecutor also worked for the judge
Read full article: Texas court tosses out conviction, death sentence after discovering a prosecutor also worked for the judgeClinton Young was convicted in a 2001 Midland County murder in which he insists he was framed. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said he was denied the right to a fair trial and an impartial judge.
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upholds “revenge porn” law
Read full article: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upholds “revenge porn” lawIn 2018, a lower court ruled that a state law that prohibits posting someone’s intimate photos online without their permission violated the First Amendment. Wednesday's ruling overturns that decision.
Court declares Texas man innocent after DNA cleared him
Read full article: Court declares Texas man innocent after DNA cleared himA Houston man who had been convicted in a 2010 fatal stabbing but was later eliminated as the killer by DNA evidence has been declared innocent by Texas’ highest criminal court.
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will review Crystal Mason’s controversial illegal voting conviction
Read full article: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will review Crystal Mason’s controversial illegal voting convictionBut Tarrant County prosecutors pressed forward with charges, arguing Mason’s case came down to intent. The all-Republican court’s decision to review Mason’s case is notable. The Court of Criminal Appeals isn’t required to review non-death penalty convictions, and it rarely grants requests to do so. Mason turned to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals late last year after a state appeals court panel affirmed the trial court’s judgement. In her petition to the court, Mason’s lawyers argued the appeals court erred in upholding her conviction because the state’s illegal voting statute requires a person to know they are ineligible to vote and Mason did not.
Texas’ highest criminal court agrees to review murder conviction of white police officer who killed unarmed Black teen
Read full article: Texas’ highest criminal court agrees to review murder conviction of white police officer who killed unarmed Black teenAs law enforcement’s disparate use force against Black people continues to stoke division in a troubled nation, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals plans to review the high-profile murder conviction of former North Texas police officer Roy Oliver, who fatally shot an unarmed Black teenager. His appeal centers on whether the statements he made to internal affairs investigators were wrongly used against him in his criminal case. Now, Texas’ highest criminal court wants to take a look. On Wednesday, the judges took the rare step of granting a review of Oliver’s case. The Court of Criminal Appeals isn’t required to review non-death penalty convictions, like Oliver’s case.
Houston judge Jesse McClure appointed to Texas Court of Criminal Appeals by Gov. Greg Abbott
Read full article: Houston judge Jesse McClure appointed to Texas Court of Criminal Appeals by Gov. Greg AbbottThe Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Jan. 15, 2020. Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas TribuneJesse McClure, a trial judge on a criminal court in Houston, will join the state’s highest court for criminal matters in the new year. Greg Abbott appointed McClure, a Republican, to the Court of Criminal Appeals, where he will fill a seat being vacated by Judge Michael Keasler. McClure said he’s looking forward to joining the appellate court, where he hopes his experience on the trial bench will serve him well. Best known for its role in death penalty cases, the court is Texas’ last word on criminal matters. A Texas law that requires judges to retire within a few years of turning 75 forced Keasler to step down partway through his six-year term.
Court reforms Bexar County man’s death sentence to life in prison in capital murder case
Read full article: Court reforms Bexar County man’s death sentence to life in prison in capital murder caseSAN ANTONIO – The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals recently issued an opinion in the case of a Bexar County man convicted of capital murder, reforming his death sentence to life in prison due to intellectual disability, according to the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office. Officials said the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders defines intellectual disability in the range of 65-75. In 2019, officials said the Court of Criminal Appeals remanded this case to the trial court to make a new recommendation on the issue of intellectual disability. Officials said the recent ruling of the court will bring the appeals of this case to an end. This court ruling means this defendant will spend the rest of his life in prison and Mr. Marin’s family will not have to worry about this case coming back for trial.
Pointing to pandemic and election controversies, Democrats make their case for Texas Supreme Court
Read full article: Pointing to pandemic and election controversies, Democrats make their case for Texas Supreme CourtIt’s notoriously difficult for judicial candidates, even those running for the state’s high courts, to capture voters’ attention. Voters have the chance to choose four justices on the nine-member Texas Supreme Court, the state’s highest court for civil matters, and three judges on its sister body, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. This year, though, the Texas Supreme Court has found itself in the spotlight far more than usual with major coronavirus-related decisions and an unusually long list of election-related cases. “Once again, the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court steps into this election against the interests of voters and a functioning democracy,” Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa said after the Harris County decision. The nation’s high court again overturned the Texas court’s decision, and Moore has since been resentenced to life in prison and released on parole.
Texas court tosses death sentence in police killing due to intellectual disability
Read full article: Texas court tosses death sentence in police killing due to intellectual disabilityThe Texas Court of Criminal Appeals changed a the sentence of convicted police officer's killer from the death penalty to life in prison without parole after he was found to be intellectually disabled. The judges previously rejected 43-year-old Juan Lizcano’s intellectual disability claim but reconsidered it after the U.S. Supreme Court forced the Texas court in 2017 to change its method to determine if death penalty inmates were intellectually disabled and therefore ineligible for execution. At least three other Texas death row inmates have had their sentences reduced since the high court’s ruling. Since 2002, the Supreme Court has held that people with intellectual disabilities can’t be executed, but states were left to come up with their own methods of defining the condition. Bobby Moore, Pedro Sosa and Robert Campbell have all also been taken off death row since the Supreme Court ruled against Texas practices on intellectual disability.
Texas is set to execute Billy Wardlow, who was 18 when he killed a man. Experts argue that's too young for a death sentence.
Read full article: Texas is set to execute Billy Wardlow, who was 18 when he killed a man. Experts argue that's too young for a death sentence.After 25 years on death row, Billy Wardlow, aided by neuroscientists, is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that at 18, he was too young to face Texas death penalty. Texas Department of Criminal JusticeOn Wednesday evening, Texas plans to execute Billy Joe Wardlow for a 1993 East Texas robbery and murder. After 25 years on death row, Wardlow, aided by neuroscientists, is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that at 18, he was too young to face Texas death penalty. He has also asked the Texas Supreme Court and Abbott to halt his execution because of the coronavirus pandemic. Neither the U.S. Supreme Court nor the Texas Supreme Court had ruled on Wardlows appeals Tuesday night.
U.S. Supreme Court rules Texas death row inmate had an ineffective lawyer, orders new review
Read full article: U.S. Supreme Court rules Texas death row inmate had an ineffective lawyer, orders new reviewThe United States Supreme Court in Washington on June 11. Reynolds Stefani/CNP/ABACA via REUTERSThe U.S. Supreme Court has again ruled against Texas top criminal court in a death penalty case, the latest in the high courts repeated dismissals of Texas decisions against death row inmates. Texas Department of Criminal JusticeThe Supreme Court ruling focused on the evidence that could have been used to sway the jury from a death sentence. The dissenting justices said that was enough to indicate the Texas court had considered the standard, and argued the court shouldnt have to show it again. Since then, Moore and other Texas death row inmates with intellectual disability claims have been resentenced to life in prison.
Texas appeals court makes history with remote oral arguments
Read full article: Texas appeals court makes history with remote oral argumentsAUSTIN – The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals heard oral arguments this week outside of the court's cavernous courtroom. “Surreal, nothing to compare it to,” said Judge Bert Richardson, a member of the court. Instead of appearing before the nine-member court in person, attorneys made their arguments remotely on a TV screen, with their images appearing along with the judges. “I think the lawyers find it a little bit more comfortable because they’re not standing in front of nine judges,” Richardson said. “It’s nice being in the courtroom and nice being with the lawyers,” Richardson said.
Optimistic Democrats are lining up to run for Texas’ high courts in 2020
Read full article: Optimistic Democrats are lining up to run for Texas’ high courts in 2020For Brandon Birmingham, a state district judge in Dallas, the 2020 race for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals started on election night 2018. Within weeks, he’d reached out to the state Democratic Party. This year, with a controversial Republican president on the ballot and sky-high stakes for Texas Democrats, candidates are hoping the races look more like heroes’ journeys. Democrats have not run a contested primary for the state’s high courts since 2008. As recently as last year, Democrats failed to even field a candidate in one race for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.