Pamela Colloff

Apr 19, 2017 — By Pamela Colloff

A group of young activists reclaim the language and words that have been used to define them.

Jan 13, 2017 — By Pamela Colloff

During the 2016 presidential campaign, much of the mainstream media failed to understand voters in Middle America. Not Dan Rather. His early recognition of Trump’s viability, and a late embrace of social media, has made the 85-year-old Wharton native more relevant than ever.

Aug 11, 2016 — By Pamela Colloff

Evangelist Lester Roloff drew a line in the dirt to keep the State of Texas from regulating his Rebekah Home for Girls. Years later, then-govenor George W. Bush handed Roloff's disciples a long-sought victory. But this Alamo had no heroes—only victims.

Aug 2, 2016 — By Pamela Colloff

At 11:48 a.m. on August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman began firing his rifle from the top of the University of Texas Tower at anyone and everyone in his sights. At 1:24 p.m., he was gunned down himself. The lives of the people who witnessed the sniper’s spree firsthand would never be the same again.

Jul 31, 2016 — By Pamela Colloff

Fifty years after the Tower shooting, the University of Texas is finally honoring the victims. What took so long?

May 16, 2016 — By Pamela Colloff

Fifty years ago, when Claire Wilson was eighteen, she was critically wounded during the 1966 University of Texas Tower shooting—the first massacre of its kind. How does the path of a bullet change a life?

Feb 10, 2016 — By Pamela Colloff

In the 56 years since Irene Garza's murder, there has only been one suspect: John Feit, the priest who heard her last confession.

Jul 23, 2015 — By Pamela Colloff

Pamela Colloff writes about the first prosecutor to be disbarred under a new law in Texas.

Jul 23, 2015 — By Pamela Colloff

Twenty-two Texans on why they will (or won’t) go to the ballot box.

Jul 22, 2015 — By Pamela Colloff

The legacy of the Voting Rights Act.

Jun 12, 2015 — By Pamela Colloff

A small measure of justice was served when the State Bar of Texas stripped Charles Sebesta of his law license and formally disbarred him.

Apr 9, 2015 — By Pamela Colloff

Nine years after Hannah Overton’s nightmarish journey through the criminal justice system began, it ended just as abruptly.

Mar 23, 2015 — By Texas Monthly and Pamela Colloff

The fastest road in America does not cross the Mojave Desert or the big sky country of Montana. Instead, it cuts through an unexceptional stretch of farmland southeast of Austin, where the posted speed limit on Texas Highway 130 jumps to 85 miles per hour. The so-called Texas Autobahn…

Feb 6, 2015 — By Pamela Colloff

In a 5-4 ruling on June 26, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that the Constitution guarantees the right for same-sex couples to marry across the country. Here is the story of two women who fought for that historic decision in Texas—and helped to make it a reality.

Jan 9, 2015 — By Pamela Colloff

The famously conservative court surprises everyone by signaling it might overturn the ban.

Dec 16, 2014 — By Pamela Colloff

Corpus Christi Mother of Five Released on Bond.

Oct 13, 2014 — By Pamela Colloff

Pamela Colloff on holding prosecutors accountable.

Sep 30, 2014 — By Pamela Colloff

Dusty Burke, now a partner at the prestigious firm Vinson & Elkins, talks about graduating from law school during an era when women were not expected to use their degrees.

Sep 17, 2014 — By Pamela Colloff

And now the Nueces County DA must decide whether to retry her.

Aug 12, 2014 — By Pamela Colloff

For more than a decade, Michelle Lyons’s job required her to watch condemned criminals be put to death. After 278 executions, she won't ever be the same.

Jul 7, 2014 — By Pamela Colloff

Excerpts from his book "Getting Life: An Innocent Man's 25-Year Journey from Prison to Peace."

Jul 6, 2014 — By Pamela Colloff

The State Bar of Texas has found “just cause” to pursue disciplinary action against Charles Sebesta, the district attorney who sent Graves to death row.

May 1, 2014 — By jordanbreal and Pamela Colloff

Plan a summertime weekend at this luxurious (and kid-free!) adult summer camp.

Apr 16, 2014 — By Pamela Colloff

Recovering at a luxurious (and kid-free!) adult summer camp.

Apr 8, 2014 — By Pamela Colloff

The Corpus Christi mother convicted of murdering her four-year-old foster son has maintained her innocence for eight years, and she finally had a chance to plead her case to Texas’s highest criminal court.

Feb 26, 2014 — By Pamela Colloff

At a recent campaign event for Ricardo Rodriguez, a former district judge who is running to replace Rene Guerra as Hidalgo County’s district attorney, Edinburg mayor Richard Garcia took to the podium to warm up an already enthusiastic crowd. Garcia offered boilerplate campaign rhetoric, trumpeting the 41-year-old candidate’s accomplishments…

Feb 11, 2014 — By Pamela Colloff

In 1998 famously tough Montague County district attorney Tim Cole sent a teenager to prison for life for his part in a brutal murder. The punishment haunts him to this day.

Jan 20, 2014 — By Pamela Colloff

Graves will formally ask the State Bar of Texas to take action against Charles Sebesta, the former district attorney who sent him to death row.

Dec 18, 2013 — By Pamela Colloff

Anthony Graves was wrongfully convicted of capital murder in a trial where the prosecutor, Charles Sebesta, withheld evidence that could have helped prove Graves’s innocence. So why hasn’t Sebesta been held accountable for his egregious misconduct?

Nov 14, 2013 — By Pamela Colloff

What will an independent audit of Anderson’s old criminal cases turn up?

Oct 23, 2013 — By Pamela Colloff

After President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, scores of Americans wrote letters to the first lady to express their grief. The most heartbreaking were those with a Texas return address.

Oct 16, 2013 — By Pamela Colloff

Graves used funds he received from the state for his wrongful conviction to set up a law school scholarship in the name of Nicole Cásarez, the Houston attorney and journalism professor who fought for eight years to secure his freedom.

Sep 26, 2013 — By Pamela Colloff

After endless denial of wrongdoing, Ken Anderson, who put Michael Morton behind bars for 25 years for a crime he did not commit, resigned from the bench days before his own civil trial was set to start.

May 13, 2013 — By Pamela Colloff

Twenty-six years after Michael Morton was sent to prison for a murder he didn’t commit, his wife’s killer was finally brought to justice.

Apr 19, 2013 — By Pamela Colloff

Arrest warrant is issued for former Williamson County district attorney Ken Anderson, the man who prosecuted Michael Morton and helped put him in prison for nearly 25 years for a crime he didn't commit.

Mar 27, 2013 — By Pamela Colloff

“The big monster with the big mustache” is sentenced to life in prison.

Mar 22, 2013 — By Pamela Colloff

On the third day of Mark Alan Norwood's capital murder trial, an old friend testified that Norwood sold him the .45 that disappeared from Michael Morton's home after his wife, Christine, was murdered in 1986.

Mar 20, 2013 — By Pamela Colloff

DNA testing of a blue bandana exonerated Michael Morton. Could the small square of cloth also be the linchpin that seals Mark Alan Norwood's fate?

Mar 19, 2013 — By Pamela Colloff

Prosecutors say they will prove that Norwood sold a .45 pistol that was stolen from the Morton home.

Mar 13, 2013 — By Pamela Colloff

Al Reinert discusses An Unreal Dream, his new film about Morton, who was wrongfully convicted of killing his wife and served nearly 25 years in prison for the crime.

Mar 6, 2013 — By Pamela Colloff

UPDATED: A Brownsville construction worker named Manuel Velez was sent to death row in 2008 after he was convicted of killing his girlfriend’s baby. Five years later, new testimony from a number of forensic experts suggests that the medical evidence against Velez was deeply flawed. Now he may receive the chance to prove his innocence.

Feb 8, 2013 — By Texas Monthly and Pamela Colloff

The final day of the court of inquiry into alleged prosecutorial misconduct by former Williamson County D.A. Ken Anderson ended with the man who helped put Michael in prison for 25 years for a crime he didn't commit calling the accusations against him "so bogus it’s unreal.”

Feb 7, 2013 — By Texas Monthly and Pamela Colloff

More testimony suggested that the former Williamson County D.A. may have withheld evidence that could have proven the innocence of Michael Morton.

Feb 5, 2013 — By Texas Monthly and Pamela Colloff

Michael Morton testifies at the inquiry for the former Williamson County district attorney who sent him to prison for a crime he didn't commit.

Feb 3, 2013 — By Texas Monthly and Pamela Colloff

Ken Anderson, the former Williamson County D.A. who prosecuted Michael, will essentially go on trial as the subject of a “court of inquiry,” an arcane legal procedure used to investigate possible wrongdoing by state officials.

Jan 21, 2013 — By Pamela Colloff

State district judge Jose Longoria stated that "all of the supposedly newly-discovered evidence ... was clearly known and discussed at the time of trial."

Jan 21, 2013 — By Pamela Colloff

Williamson Country District Attorney John Bradley faced a resounding defeat in a race that became a referendum on his handling of the Michael Morton case. 

Jan 21, 2013 — By Pamela Colloff

David Jones, one of Overton's defense attorneys during her 2007 trial, broke down on the stand.

Jan 21, 2013 — By Pamela Colloff

Ex-prosecutor Sandra Eastwood is put on the hot seat and questioned about whether or not she withheld critical evidence from the defense.

Jan 21, 2013 — By Pamela Colloff

The leading salt poisoning expert testified on the second day of Overton's hearing.