Richard LaFuente, who was convicted of murder in 1986, has steadfastly proclaimed his innocence for more than twenty years. Now he has some unlikely support in one person—the victim's own sister.
About a year ago, it was reported that Randall Dale Adams had died, bringing to a close one of the more tragic stories in recent Texas history. A construction worker from Ohio, Adams (pictured here, in 1989) was convicted and sentenced to die in 1977 for the murder of Dallas
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.
Over the past two decades Texas has exonerated more than eighty wrongfully convicted prisoners. How does this happen? Can anything be done to stop it? We assembled a group of experts (a police chief, a state senator, a judge, a prosecutor, a district attorney, and an exoneree) to find out.
The executive editor on writing about wrongful conviction cases, interviewing Hannah Overton in prison, and recognizing that things may not be as they seem.
Police had all but given up looking into a pair of assaults against two prostitutes in the Houston neighborhood of Acres Homes. But when a third turned up dead, investigator Darcus Shorten embarked on a search that revealed a brutal reality.
How an East Texas attorney spawned the most massive products-liability case ever—one that has cost millions of dollars and involved thousands of plaintiffs and might never end.
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?
It’s time to halt executions in Texas.
Thirty-seven men, 525 years behind bars for crimes they didn’t commit. Thanks to DNA testing, their claims of innocence have finally been proved—but what happens to them now?
Ernest Willis spent seventeen years on death row for a crime he didn’t commit. And he has a few things to say about the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004 for a strangely similar crime that many experts believe he didn’t commit either.
Michael Hall’s exclusive interview with Ernest Willis.
Pamela Colloff talks about reporting on an eighteen-year-old murder case and interviewing Anthony Graves, who was sent to death row for the crime.
If it’s something you’d just as soon not think about, chances are Pamela Colloff has written about it for TEXAS MONTHLY. Here is a partial list of the subjects she’s covered since coming to work at the magazine thirteen years ago: murder, arson, abortion, heroin addiction, hate crimes, illegal immigration,
Freedom for Earnest Willis?
Clyde Wilson is more than a private investigator. He’s the historian of Houston’s dark side—and that makes him the most dangerous man in town.
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.
An exclusive peek at the trailer for The Last 40 Miles, an animation about heading to the death chamber.
Michael Morton spent 25 years wrongfully imprisoned for the brutal murder of his wife. How did it happen? And who is to blame?
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.
Brian DeAngelis stepped down from his post as Texas A&M-Kingsville's athletic director after he was accused of taking photos up a teen's skirt at Walmart.
A Florida man was sentenced to nine months in federal prison Thursday for catching alligator gar in the Trinity River and exporting the fish to Japan.
Todd Trotter is trying to make a film about Richard LaFuente, who has served 26 years in prison for a crime he says he did not commit.
Some 31 female trainees have accused twelve instructors of sexual misconduct.
Courtney Royal had sued to practice his vampiric religious beliefs behind bars but the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals was unswayed by his arguments.
A full 3,888 days after Hank Skinner first asked for testing of the DNA in the murder case that sent him to death row, the Texas Attorney General's Office finally relented.
UPDATE: Judge Lanny Moriarty has vacated Diane Tran's conviction. The Willis High School junior has repeatedly missed school because she also works two jobs.
The Columbia University Human Rights Law Review published a 400-page investigative article that alleges that in 1989, Texas executed the wrong man for a 1983 murder.
Kerry Max Cook's attorneys claim A.D. Clark III, a former Smith County district attorney, kept a blood-soaked knife at his home, an allegation Clark denies.
The Supreme Court rejected the ex-Enron CEO's latest appeal, a move that is hardly surprising to most Houstonians.
What did Kerry Max Cook actually win on Monday, when he was granted his request for DNA testing? Not a lot, most likely.
Fifteen years after being released from death row, Kerry Max Cook is still looking for freedom.
Ernie Lopez, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a baby and became the focus of a ProPublica investigation into mishandled child death cases, was released from prison after the state appeals court overturned his conviction.
Guards had been aware that the Liberty County jail inmates were viewing porn for months, according to a KPRC News investigation.
Tyler's paper of record just published an article about former death row inmate Kerry Max Cook. Let me tell you the rest of the story.
The Court of Criminal Appeals examined the case of Richard Miles, applied common sense and legal logic, and determined that he was innocent.
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.
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
In 1982 a man named Wayne East was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of one of Abilene’s most prominent citizens. To this day, he maintains his innocence. And one member of the victim’s family believes him.
Larry Swearingen has ten scientists and doctors who say he isn't a killer. He also has a new execution date.
The “Mineola Swingers Club” cases come to a disgraceful end.
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.
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
The wheels of justice (or injustice) continue to turn in the shockingly bizarre Mineola swingers club case.
Another defendant in the Mineola child sex ring crimes is found guilty.
New trials for two of the Mineola Swinger's Club defendants.
The Mineola child sex ring scandal keeps getting weirder.
The Texas attorney general takes a second look at the Mineola child sex ring cases.
Investigators and social workers in the Mineola Swingers Club cases have admitted that there was plenty of evidence that never made it into the first three trials that resulted in three life sentences. Will it make a difference?
When adults are accused of unthinkable crimes against children, what’s fact and what’s fiction can get lost in translation.
