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.
Houston attorney Bill Kroger and state Supreme Court chief justice Wallace Jefferson are on a mission to rescue thousands of crumbling, fading, and fascinating legal documents from district and county clerks’ offices all over the state. Can they save Texas history before it’s too late?
Abilene law enforcement officials don’t want the convicted murderer back in their part of the state.
The convicted killer of a prominent Abilene resident is set to be released.
Some more advice in the wake of Tyler Hamilton’s interview on 60 Minutes.
An open letter to the greatest cyclist ever.
In this extraordinary oral history, Willie Nelson’s friends, kin, and collaborators (Jimmy Carter, Emmylou Harris, Robert Redford, Merle Haggard, and many more big names) tell their favorite stories about the Red Headed Stranger.
As he readies himself for this summer's Tour de France, the two-time winner is battling allegations in Europe and elsewhere that he uses performance-enhancing drugs. He insists he is clean. But proving that is turning out to be one of his toughest challenges yet. He doesn't use performance-enhancing drugs, he
In the years before anyone had heard of Woodstock or Altamont, teenagers across Texas started bands in their parents’ garages, banging out earnest rock songs on cheap equipment and hoping to hit it big at the local skating rink or VFW post. For some, those dreams won’t fade away.
Until he overdosed in November, he was one of the most influential cultural figures in Texas, the master of a scene fueled by drugs and his own brilliant, eccentric music.
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.
As the peculiar case of a Fort Bend sheriff’s deputy and his bloodhounds makes clear, the techniques of crime-scene investigation are not as infallible as the TV shows would have us believe. How a misplaced faith in some forensic experts is putting innocent people behind bars.
Want to see the Texas of Leadbelly, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Mance Lipscomb, and other pioneering musicians of the twentieth century? Your trip through time begins near Washington-on-the-Brazos.
Freedom for Earnest Willis?
The short life and tragic death of Johnny Romano, the youngest professional skateboarder ever.
Dallas
Most people from Dallas who make it big in the music business get out of town as soon as they can. “That’s what celebrities do,” Erykah Badu says. “I never wanted to be a celebrity.”
Before Elvis Presley became an overweight entertainer in a rhinestone jumpsuit, there was a brief, more innocent time when he wore khakis as an Army private in Central Texas. It was his last chance to be a normal human being. And to be happy.
Her decision to close the door on a death row inmate’s final plea has earned the state’s top criminal judge lasting infamy and a misconduct investigation that goes to trial this month. But was she wrong?
How the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals mistakes toughness for fairness—and gives the state a black eye.
I know her as my mother, whose womb I emerged from more than fifty years ago. They—the million or so quilting fanatics, mostly women, who spend hours a day with needle, thread, fabric, and sewing machine—know her as a celebrity. She can’t believe it either.
On November 5, 181,500 people crowded into a former cow pasture north of Fort Worth to watch 43 race cars drive really, really fast for five hundred miles. That day, the Texas Motor Speedway would be, measured by population, one of the largest cities in the state. Welcome to NASCAR,
South from Alpine to Study Butte, west to Presidio, north to Marfa, and east to Alpine.
Where are the best places to eat barbecue in Texas? Six years ago we published a highly subjective—and hotly debated— list of our fifty favorite joints, and now we’ve gone back for seconds. Ten intrepid souls drove more than 21,000 miles in search of 2003’s worthiest ‘cue. Here’s what they
If the Corsicana native is the best songwriter in Texas, perhaps it's because he knows his material. Hardscrabble upbringing. Sinful behavior. Redemption. Personal tragedy. Profound sorrow. And, finally, more redemption.
Old country and western in Mingus, zippy zydeco in Bridge City: The shows always go on at these ten tuneful spots.
Los Angeles How the West is fun.
These five weekend getaways will make you want to do just that.
Cops who threaten torture. Prosecutors who go too far. Defense lawyers who sleep on the job. And an appellate court that rubber-stamps it all. Let’s be tough on crime, but let’s also see that justice is done.
The legendary honky-tonk is getting some help from an unlikely source: Transwestern, a giant real estate developer.
When a rare white buffalo was born in North Texas, thousands came to celebrate the new age he heralded. A year later the animal was dead.
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.
Washington, D.C., has Abraham Lincoln, Salt Lake City has Brigham Young, Philadelphia has Rocky Balboa. And now Austin has Willie. The massive bronze sculpture, which was commissioned by a local group called Capital Area Statues, rests downtown at the corner of Willie Nelson Boulevard (formerly Second Street) and Lavaca outside the new studios of Austin City
The country singer battled former world champ boxer Ann Wolfe for bragging rights in dominoes. So who took home the title?
Senior editor Michael Hall, a lifelong Packers fan, writes a love letter to the Houstonian, who hoisted the mirror ball-trophy on last night's DWTS finale.
Austin finally sees its first resident accepted into the venerable institution.
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.
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.
Texas Monthly senior editor Michael Hall on why GQ's story about Jerry Joseph, the too-good-to-be-true athlete in Odessa, was one of his favorites of the year.
It has been twenty years since four teenage girls were murdered in a north Austin yogurt shop—and still no answers.
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.
In 1955 Bill Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock” transformed the sound of popular music and made him an international star. Twenty-five years later he was forgotten, desperate, and dying in Harlingen. How did one of the fathers of rock and roll land so far outside the spotlight?
Fifty-eight bands from around the world play Austin Psych Fest 4 April 29–May 1. Michael Hall sits down with the Black Angels, founders of the festival (and the “Reverberation Appreciation Society”) and rejuvenated psychedelic godfather Roky Erickson.
