The Science Used to Send Him to Death Row Has Changed. The Courts Haven’t Yet Caught Up.
Robert Roberson is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to examine “shaken baby syndrome” and the state of forensic science.
Maurice Chammah is an Austin-based staff writer for the Marshall Project, for which he writes feature stories about criminal justice issues and was on a team that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. His first book, Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty, won the Writers’ League of Texas 2021 Nonfiction Book Award and a 2019 J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award. He hosted the 2023 podcast Smoke Screen: Just Say You’re Sorry, created with the Marshall Project and Sony Music Entertainment. He previously played violin with the band Mother Falcon.
Robert Roberson is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to examine “shaken baby syndrome” and the state of forensic science.
Dalila Reynoso, who started a friendship with Sheriff Larry Smith at Whataburger, now monitors local jails to keep him accountable.
They’ve already existed in some districts for years, but now some school employees are getting intensive, police-style training in how to respond to a shooting.
There aren’t that many cowboys anymore, and yet cowboy churches seem to be everywhere. What gives?
The State of Texas uses pentobarbital for lethal injections, a drug with a long and complicated history. But the question everyone wants answered remains: Is it a painless way to die?
The Innocence Project of Texas receives thousands of letters each year from prison inmates proclaiming their innocence. So do a number of other innocence clinics around the state, which is why the Lubbock-based nonprofit wants to establish a single system for screening letters.
The band Gungor is using the festival to broaden its fan base outside the churches where it made its name. Can it escape the stigma of Christian rock without alienating its devoted followers?
The City of Lubbock makes amends for its grievous mistake in wrongfully convicting Timothy Cole—who died in prison—by erecting a statue in his memory.
The deeper politics of the novel still resonate—especially with inmates—nearly 150 years since it was published.
Jerry Duane Martin killed a correctional officer as he tried breaking out of prison, and tonight he will be executed. But the man who tried escaping with him, and who some believe is also culpable for the officer's death, hasn't been convicted of the six-year-old crime.
A small group of committed protesters show up to nearly every execution in Huntsville to exercise their civil rights in what has become a sort of ritual.
Like many churches across the nation, Bethel Church, in Temple, produces a hell house, a faith-based haunted house. These houses draw severe criticism for stoking the culture wars, but Bethel's leaders want to be open and tolerant in their messaging. Are they succeeding?