Entries tagged with “Texas Defender Service”
Policy Issues
Innocence
,Victims' Families
,Aug 12, 2024
New York Times Video Op-eds Highlight Systemic Flaws in the Capital Punishment System, Including Mistakes from Junk Science and Lack of Closure for Victims’ Families
In the second and third videos of The New York Times’ three-part series, “The Fallibility of Justice,” Brett Malone, whose mother’s killer remains on Louisiana death row, and Texas death-sentenced prisoner Charles Don Flores provide their perspectives on capital punishment. The New York Times has consistently called for abolition of the death penalty, describing it as “full of bias and error, morally abhorrent, [and] futile in deterring crime.”…
Policy Issues
Innocence
,Aug 05, 2024
New Report Reveals Texas Junk Science Statute Fails to Adequately Provide Relief for Innocent Prisoners, Including Robert Roberson
A July 2024 report from the Texas Defender Service (TDS), An Unfulfilled Promise: Assessing the Efficacy of 11.073, the first-ever comprehensive review of Texas’ junk science writ, revealed that the “law systematically fails to provide relief to innocent people convicted based on false forensic evidence.” In 2013, the Texas Legislature passed a first-of-its-kind law, Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 11.073, creating a procedural pathway for convicted individuals to seek new…
Facts & Research
New Voices
,Mar 21, 2024
Discussions with DPIC Podcast: Retired Judge Elsa Alcala on the Death Penalty in Texas
In this month’s episode of Discussions with DPIC, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Judge Elsa Alcala, who served on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals from 2011 to 2018. In addition to serving as a judge at the appeals and trial level, she worked as a prosecutor, criminal defense attorney, and most recently as a justice-reform lobbyist during her three-decade career in criminal law. She shares how these experiences have informed her perspective on the death penalty and…
Policy Issues
Race
,Feb 28, 2024
New Report from Texas Defender Service Examines Ongoing Racial Disparities in Harris County Death Penalty Practices and Recommends Reforms
A new report from the Texas Defender Service (TDS) titled “Arbitrary and Capricious: Examining Racial Disparities in Harris County’s Pursuit of Death Sentences” was published on February 22, 2024 and is the latest in series of TDS reports on use of the death penalty in Texas. The report focuses on Harris County’s outlier death penalty practices, both within the state and nationally. While more than half of the 254 counties in Texas have never imposed a death sentence, Harris County is…