Report from Court
January 21, 2013
Hannah Overton Hearing: Day Two
The leading salt poisoning expert testified on the second day of Overton's hearing.
192 Articles
Report from Court
January 21, 2013
The Hannah Overton Hearing: Day One
Executive Editor Pamela Colloff reports from Nueces County, where testimony in the Hannah Overton hearing focused on scientific evidence supporting the Corpus Christi homemaker's claims of innocence.
Politics & Policy
January 21, 2013
Graves Case Becomes Election Issue
Anthony Graves, who spent eighteen years behind bars for a crime he didn't commit, speaks out as the Washington County sheriff’s race heats up.
Video
January 21, 2013
WATCH: Michael Morton Gives His First Full Interview to “60 Minutes”
Although Michael Morton was formally exonerated last year of his wife’s murder and released from prison after nearly 25 years behind bars, he has made few public comments until now. On Sunday night, in a 60 Minutes exclusive, he spoke to CBS correspondent Lara Logan about his ordeal.Morton recounted how
January 21, 2013
Rusty Hardin Named Special Prosecutor in Court of Inquiry
The legendary Houston criminal defense attorney will examine former DA Ken Anderson, who prosecuted Michael Morton. With this appointment, things just got a whole lot more interesting. Here's why.
Letter From Corpus Christi
January 21, 2013
Hannah’s Prayer
Five years ago, Hannah Overton, a church-going Corpus Christi mother of five, was convicted of murdering her soon-to-be adoptive child and sentenced to life in prison. In April, she returned to court—and watched her lawyers put the prosecution on defense.
Texana
January 21, 2013
Randall Dale Adams
Only a man who came within three days of being executed for a crime he didn’t commit could be as passionate an advocate for a death-penalty moratorium as former death row inmate Randall Dale Adams.
Feature
January 21, 2013
Church Burners
Why did Jason Bourque and Daniel McAllister, two Baptist boys from East Texas, set fire to ten churches across three counties last year?
Texas History
January 20, 2013
Ring of Fire
On November 18, 1999, at 2:42 a.m., the most passionately observed collegiate tradition in Texas—if not the world—came crashing down. Nearly sixty people were on top of the Texas A&M Bonfire when the million-pound structure collapsed, killing twelve, wounding dozens more, and eventually leading to the suspension of the ninety-year-old
Politics & Policy
January 20, 2013
Go Ask Alice
Fifty years ago LBJ won—some say stole—a U.S. Senate runoff. What happened to the South Texas ballot box that saved his career?
True Crime
January 20, 2013
Innocence Found
Anthony Graves had been behind bars for eighteen years when the prosecutors in his case abruptly dropped all charges and set him free. How did it happen? What happens next?
Lives + Times
January 20, 2013
No Fuss
"It's still easy to walk around New York unrecognized. I'm kind of nerdy and not fashionable, so people don't give me a second look."
Feature
January 20, 2013
Literature: John Phillip Santos
Getting personal.
Reporter
January 20, 2013
Eternal Flame
What do you do if your university's administrators extinguish your Bonfire? If you're Aggies, you take the show on the road.
Travel & Outdoors
January 20, 2013
Great Escapes
From a boutique hotel in hip South Austin to a bed-and-breakfast across the Mexican border, from fly fishing on the Llano River to bathing in the Chinati Hot Springs, 33 getaways the guidebooks don’t tell you about, courtesy of our intrepid staff of weekend warriors.
Food & Drink
January 20, 2013
Famous Texans on Their Favorite Burgers
Yes, even famous people have favorite burgers. And since the hamburger was invented right here in Texas, we decided to ask a few famous Texans to tell us their stories about their favorite burger experiences. Rebecca RobinsonMiss Texas 2008, Miss Congeniality in Miss America 2009Lives in Dallas Rebecca
Feature
January 20, 2013
Flesh and Blood
The most shocking thing about the murder of the Caffey family in East Texas last year was not how gruesome or inexplicable the crime was. It was that it was masterminded by sixteen-year-old Erin Caffey, a pretty girl who worked at the Sonic, sang in her church, and loved her
Politics & Policy
January 20, 2013
The Desert of the Dead
While politicians and bureaucrats endlessly debate the best ways to secure our borders, undocumented immigrants are dying to get into America—literally.
Feature
January 20, 2013
Badges of Dishonor
Two Border Patrol agents are sent to prison while the dope smuggler they pursued and wounded is granted immunity by federal prosecutors and goes free. A miscarriage of justice? Not so fast.
Being Texan
January 20, 2013
Jailhouse Flock
What is ex–football star Bill Glass’s plan for reforming hardened prison inmates? God is in the details.
Feature
January 20, 2013
Faces of Forgiveness
An East Texas prison ministry is trying to heal crime victims and rehabilitate criminals by getting them to talk.
True Crime
January 20, 2013
The Beating of Billy Ray Johnson
The short, slight, mentally disabled black man was found on the side of a road in Linden, huddled in a fetal position. He was bloody and unconscious—the victim of a violent crime. But another tragedy was how residents of the East Texas town reacted.
Feature
January 20, 2013
Life During Wartime
Most of the 42,000 soldiers stationed at Fort Hood, one of the largest military installations in the world, are in Iraq or preparing to go. Meanwhile, the loved ones who are left behind wait—and hope they don't hear an unexpected knock at the door.
Style & Design
January 20, 2013
Lip Shtick
There are countless theories about why Dallas women are so crazy about makeup, but there's something approaching a consensus about the place to buy it. Which is why, against all odds, I found myself at the NorthPark Center Neiman's.
Texas History
January 20, 2013
“Beldades” of the Ball
Every February, on the weekend of Presidents’ Day, the daughters of Laredo’s most prominent families are presented to society in dresses that cost $20,000 or more at a colonial pageant that is the party of the year.
Style & Design
January 20, 2013
Sweet 15
For the longest time, quinceañeras were simple, down-home celebrations held in parish halls and backyards. Then along came the stretch Humvees, the carriages and thrones, the choreographed dance routines, the smoke machines, the climbing walls, and the dinners for four hundred bedazzled guests. One thing remains the same, though: It’s
Travel & Outdoors
January 20, 2013
Shops
Elegant antebellum furniture in Jefferson, Latin American folk art in Smithville: Where the buys are in two dozen communities.
Feature
January 20, 2013
The Regulars
ANN DICKENSON, 61 TEACHER’S AIDE Eats at: Donald Citrano’s Coffee Shop Cafe, McGregor“We go to the Coffee Shop Cafe every Friday and Saturday night. They always reserve a table for us, so we call if we’re not coming. It’s always the same table—the round one in
True Crime
December 1, 2012
The Innocent Man, Part Two
Michael Morton spent 25 years wrongfully imprisoned for the brutal murder of his wife. How did it happen? And who is to blame?
True Crime
November 1, 2012
The Innocent Man, Part One
The National Magazine Award–winning story about Michael Morton, a man who came home from work one day in 1986 to find that his wife had been brutally murdered. What happened next was one of the most profound miscarriages of justice in Texas history.
Update
February 9, 2012
Hannah Overton’s Case Will be Examined Again
The Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a lower court to examine claims of innocence by the Corpus Christi mother of five, who was charged with capital murder nearly six years ago.
True Crime
January 1, 2012
Hannah and Andrew
On October 3, 2006, a four-year-old boy named Andrew Burd died in a Corpus Christi hospital. The cause of death was determined to be salt poisoning, an extremely unusual occurrence. Even more shocking was what happened next: his foster mother, Hannah Overton, was found guilty of killing him. But could
News & Politics
October 31, 2010
In Our Backyard
The faces—and voices—of eighteen Texans who are living the debate over illegal immigration.
Music
October 31, 2010
Teaching Children About Music
The Biscuit Brothers on teaching kids about music.
Web Exclusive
October 29, 2010
Free at Last
For eighteen years Anthony Graves insisted that he had nothing to do with the gruesome murder of a family in Somerville. That’s exactly how long it took for justice to finally be served.
True Crime
September 27, 2010
Innocence Lost
Anthony Graves has spent the past eighteen years behind bars—twelve of them on death row—for a grisly 1992 murder. There was no plausible motive nor any physical evidence to connect him to the crime, and the only witness against him repeatedly recanted his testimony. Yet he remains locked up. Did
Letter From Corpus Christi
April 30, 2010
The Great Pretender
The strange case of Mauricio Celis, the Corpus Christi lawyer who was not a lawyer.
Music
April 1, 2010
Dreaming of Her
On March 31, 1995, South Texas came to a standstill as the shocking news spread that the hugely popular Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla Perez had been shot and killed in Corpus Christi. Fifteen years later, the people who knew Selena best recall the life and devastating death of a star
Music
March 31, 2010
Soñando con Ella
Era una chica del barrio cuya voz la hizo acreedora de un Grammy, vendió millones de álbumes y la convirtió en una sensación como ninguna otra. Y cuando fue asesinada, el 31 de marzo de 1995, la estrella de la música tejana Selena Quintanilla Pérez pareció llevarse consigo las aspiraciones
Being Texan
March 1, 2010
The Bucket List
63 things that all Texans must do before they die.
Web Exclusive
October 31, 2009
Warning Shot
Texas parents have the choice to opt their children out of school vaccination requirements based on “reasons of conscience.” But what about the other kids around them?
The Horse's Mouth
July 31, 2009
Being a Multimedia Journalist
The CNN contributor and syndicated columnist talks about the future of media.
Web Exclusive
June 30, 2009
Unhealthy Living
Texas school districts will no longer be required to offer health classes—and that’s just sick.
Web Exclusive
May 31, 2009
Road to Perdition
Was the Army as much to blame for the Mahmudiyah killings as its perpetrators?
Travel & Outdoors
May 31, 2009
Romance on the River
Location: San AntonioWhat You’ll Need: Significant OtherMy husband and I have an annual tradition of going to San Antonio for the weekend—away from errands, our toddler, and everything else that keeps us too busy when we’re at home. It’s easy and inexpensive enough that even a short
Web Exclusive
March 1, 2009
Gossip Girl
The Grande Dame of Dish is far from retired.
Web Exclusive
February 1, 2009
Entrapped
How a high-profile member of Austin′s radical progressive community became an FBI informant.
UPDATE
February 1, 2009
A Mother’s Words
Bonnie Haldeman, the mother of David Koresh, dies at 64.
Politics & Policy
January 1, 2009
Crossing the Line
The facts of this case are quite simple. Two Border Patrol agents shot at an unarmed man as he was running away from them. And then, they covered it up.
Business
December 1, 2008
Auto Pilot
With the Big Three teetering on the brink, it’s worth noting that the Toyota plant in San Antonio is still motoring. Oh, what a feeling!