After serving eight years in prison and 12 on parole, Lewis Conway Jr. was not about to go back. The 6-foot-6 Austin native had served his time and turned his life around. Where more than three decades earlier he was involved in gang activity and arrested for a...
Criminal Justice
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COVID-19 cases among Texas inmates rise as Abbott wins court battle to restrict releases
The number of Texas inmates who have tested positive for COVID-19 reached 294 on Thursday, according to the latest Texas Commission on Jail Standards data. The same data shows that 4,818 inmates are currently quarantined or isolated because they came in contact with...
First Texas prisoner tests positive for coronavirus. It’s time to start releasing inmates.
The first Texas prisoner tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, according to the Texas Tribune. The 37-year-old Galveston man is the second person in the Texas prison system to test positive for the new coronavirus. Over the weekend, a counselor working at a prison...
Hell hasn’t frozen over because of Texas’ pot-friendly mistake
This year, more than 60 marijuana-related bills were filed in the Texas Legislature. Most, like newly-born tadpoles, were destined to die in the state’s GOP-controlled legislature. But one critical bill, which would have represented the most significant shift in...
Rodney Reed gets a new judge– and hope for justice
Rodney Reed, a 51-year-old death row inmate believed to be innocent of his 1996 murder conviction, is getting his case sent back to trial court. The Austin American-Statesman reports that Reed has been assigned a new visiting judge, retired Judge J.D. Langley of the...
Momentum builds on Gov. Abbott to stop execution of Rodney Reed
Calls for Texas to give death row inmate Rodney Reed a stay of execution are intensifying. Reed was convicted for the 1996 rape and murder of Stacey Stites, but his guilt is in doubt. Almost 3 million people have signed the petition to stop Reed’s scheduled Nov. 20...
Austin Dems file lawsuit to help death row inmate believed to be innocent
On Monday, Austin-area Democrats joined local law enforcement in filing a supportive Supreme Court brief for Rodney Reed, a Texas death row inmate convicted of killing a 19-year-old woman in 1996. He is scheduled to be put to death on Nov. 20 unless Gov. Greg Abbott...
NAACP Legal Defense Fund calls for investigation into Fort Worth police
Protestors and activists are demanding answers from Fort Worth Police after an officer shot and killed an unarmed 28-year-old black woman in her home. Atatiana Jefferson was shot to death Saturday morning after she was given only three to four seconds to comply with...
Amber Guyger found guilty of murder
Amber Guyger, the former Dallas police officer who killed her African-American neighbor Botham Jean, was found guilty of murder on Tuesday. In 2018, Guyger, while off-duty, entered Jean’s home, thinking it was her own. Jean was unarmed and eating ice cream on his...