Category Archives: DA Watch

Suspicious Ray Gricar Actions as D.A. Investigating Penn State Child Abuse Makes Me Think Gricar Is Alive and Well, and the FBI Does Too

Ray Gricar is a name that most people recognize now, as the Penn State scandal just keeps getting bigger.  It’s Ray Gricar’s story that I want to discuss, but first things first. Right now, this Pennsylvania DA is talked about like he’s dead, maybe a good guy who got assassinated; assistant football coach Mike McQueary…


Texas Prosecutors Come Under Increased Scrunity in Texas: Hank Skinner Stay Within Weeks of Michael Morton Release

Hank Skinner is still alive today thanks to a last minute stay granted by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals – and it’s still open for debate whether or not his requests will be granted for DNA evidence to be tested. (For details on Hank Skinner’s case, check out our earlier posts here and here.)…


Texas DA Reported to Trade Cash for Freedom or Light Sentences. Lotsa Cash.

Texas District Attorney Lynda Kaye Russell, the head prosecutor for Shelby County, Texas, apparently is in big, big trouble if a news report from the Associated Press, which is being picked up all over the country, is accurate. Where’s Shelby County?  It’s near the Texas – Louisiana border (you may recognize the area as Center,…


Prosecutorial Misconduct Spotlighted in Michael Morton Case as Texas High Court Releases Innocent Man

This morning, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued its opinion in the Michael Morton case, where the Innocence Project (among others) have been working hard to overturn Morton’s 1987 conviction (and life sentence) for murdering his wife. Read the full text of the CCA’s opinion, hot off the presses, here. For background on the…


Texas Judge Suzanne Wooten Still Facing Felony Bribery Charges – But the FBI Investigation May Point Fingers at Her Prosecutors, Stay Tuned

Texas Judge Suzanne Wooten’s predicament — being indicted on 6 counts of bribery while presiding over a Collin County judicial bench — was something that we first discussed last October, when Judge Wooten’s attorneys were arguing this was all politically motivated hogwash while the prosecutor, then District Attorney John Roach, claimed his offices were merely…


Innocence Project Finds Another Innocent Man Convicted of Murder in Texas but Loses Fight to Boot Prosecutor for Bias

For the past 24 years, a man named Michael Morton has sat in a Texas prison cell after being arrested, tried, and convicted of his wife Christine’s homicide. According to the Innocence Project, Mr. Morton was wrongfully convicted, he is innocent of murdering his wife, and the prosecution shouldn’t be trusted to do the right…


Veteran Texas D.A. Busted for Intoxication So He Quits 26 Year Job

On the job 26 years and one day, it’s all over. Seems that Jim Kopp, who had been an assistant district attorney down in the Bexar County District Attorney’s office (serving the San Antonio area) since 1985, quit a couple of weeks ago after he spent some time in the Bandera County Jail, not as…


Who Will Bring Texas Prosecutor James Elliott to Justice In the Delma Banks Case? He’s Retrying a 30 Yr Old Death Penalty Case Despite US Supreme Ct Rebuke

In 2004, Texas Death Row inmate Delma Banks’ case came before the United States Supreme Court, where the Highest Court in the Land found that prosecutors had done very bad things — they had suppressed evidence, they had hidden their own mistakes, etc. — and because of this, Banks’ case was overturned.  Read the U.S….


Texas DA Pleads Guilty to Felonies: Will Serve Jail Time, Pay Fine – and Return $2.16 Million He Took

The big news this month down in Alice, Texas (which lies between San Antonio and Corpus Christi, if you’re wondering) is not that former Brooks County and Jim Wells County district attorney Joe Frank Garza has made a deal with prosecutors rather than face trial on a number of felony charges. No, the big news…


Brownsville DA Gets WorldWide Media Coverage 4 Using Facebook Profiles in Jury Selection Process

Armando Villalobos, Cameron County’s District Attorney, is making news all around the country and across the globe from his office down in Brownsville, Texas — all because Mr Villalobos has decided to use Facebook as part of his jury selection. That’s right:  the District Attorney has announced that prosecutors down in Brownsville are going to use Facebook pages…