Justice has been victorious all because of the hard work of students involved with both (1) UT-Austin’s Texas Center for Actual Innocence and (2) the Innocence Network at UT-Arlington. Long after the criminal justice system placed Claude Alvin Simmons, Jr., 54, and Christopher Shun Scott, 39, into Texas prisons for life and threw away the…
Remember the mentally ill man whose family called for help in calming him down — and who the cops Tasered, then sent EMS away? The young man died — read all the details in our prior post. Well, according to PoliceOne.Com, the Fort Worth Police Department has closed the file on Officer Stephanie A. Phillips…
Detective Mickey East is working the auto pound desk today while his Dallas Police Department colleagues are going through his files. Seems that Detective East — a career cop, with over 35 years of service to the community — has made a habit of taking work home and keeping it there. Specifically, police files. You know,…
Yesterday, Richard Miles became a free man after being jailed for 14 years. His mom was there, waiting for him, at the Dallas County Courthouse. Cops Kept Their Mouths Shut Since 1995 In August 1995, Richard Miles was tried and convicted for murder and attempted murder here in Dallas. And from then until now, the…
Back in 1999, Michael Toney was convicted and sentenced to die for the cruel bombing of a mobile home that killed three people in 1985. For years and years, Michael Toney — who had no connection with the victims that was ever found, and who had no physical evidence connecting him to the crime — wrote everyone he could…
Tiffany Lewis’s life will never be the same now that she’s pled guilty to taking client money — lots of client money — in a probate case … but we’re not too sure how ashamed she is just yet …. On September 15, 2009, former judge Tiffany Lewis pled guilty just as testimony was about…
Times are tight and getting tighter, so counties across the State of Texas are finding all sorts of ways to cut costs. Here in Dallas, that means something to the criminal defense bar and prosecutors alike because who’s footing the bill for testing of DNA, firearms, blood, etc. has changed. The Dallas County District Attorney’s Office isn’t…
The Honorable Jerry Buchmeyer died this week in a San Marcos nursing home at the age of 76, after serving the bench for over 30 years. Considered by many to be a liberal judge, with landmark decisions involving both public housing and redistricting in this state, he achieved even more notoriety for his now famous…
If you’re shaking your head in disbelief at this week’s ruling by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals — well, join the crowd. When the news first hit that a trial court judge and the district attorney who prosecuted cases in her courtroom had had a long-standing sexual relationship, lots of folk were stunned. And lots…