Appeals Court Finally Exonerates Lydell Grant—Two Years After DNA Evidence Cleared Him
And 18 months after the police, district attorney, and trial judge all declared the Houston man innocent.
Wrongful Convictions
News & Politics
January 29, 2021
After Eighteen Years Behind Bars for a Crime She Didn’t Commit, Rosa Jimenez Is Finally Free
Her ordeal included one final trauma: ICE showed up to deport her before the Mexican consulate intervened.
Politics & Policy
July 13, 2020
How a New Jersey Divinity Student Helped Transform the Texas Criminal Justice System
Jim McCloskey, the godfather of the innocence movement, changed the way we think about crime and punishment.
Criminal Justice
July 7, 2020
‘Outcry’ Offers a Nuanced Look at a Wrongful Conviction in Central Texas
The five-part Showtime docu-series avoids the worst pitfalls of the true-crime genre, favoring character over sensationalism.
The National Podcast of Texas
November 18, 2019
The West Memphis Three’s Jason Baldwin Fights for the “Hopelessly Innocent” After 18 Years in Prison
On this week’s National Podcast of Texas, the cofounder of Austin nonprofit Proclaim Justice on inequality in the justice system and the Rodney Reed saga.
True Crime
July 13, 2016
The Murders at the Lake
In 1982 three teenagers were killed near the shores of Lake Waco in a seemingly inexplicable crime. More than three decades later, the tragic and disturbing case still casts a long, dark shadow.
Criminal Justice
October 20, 2015
Another Texas Exoneration Calls Bite Mark Evidence Into Question
Critics denounce this arm of forensic science as bogus and subjective.
Chat
July 23, 2015
True Grits
Innocence Project of Texas executive director Scott Henson says his organization is about more than DNA evidence.
The Daily Post
June 12, 2015
Ex-DA Who Sent Exoneree Anthony Graves to Death Row Is Disbarred
A small measure of justice was served when the State Bar of Texas stripped Charles Sebesta of his law license and formally disbarred him.
Politics & Policy
September 17, 2014
Hannah Overton’s Capital Murder Conviction Is Overturned
And now the Nueces County DA must decide whether to retry her.
Politics & Policy
July 15, 2014
“I Believe It’s a Heroic Calling”
A conversation with the criminal defense lawyers of the year.
Politics & Policy
July 6, 2014
Anthony Graves’ Prosecutor Finally Has to Answer For His Actions
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.
Politics & Policy
June 9, 2014
Richard LaFuente Is Finally Free!
For 28 years, parole officials tried to get him to confess to a crime he didn’t commit. He refused—and never wavered. This is why he is the bravest man I know.
Politics & Policy
February 4, 2014
Can a Wrongful Conviction Ever Be Forgiven?
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.
Politics & Policy
January 7, 2014
How to Get a Teenager to Admit to a Murder He Didn’t Commit
An El Paso police investigator bullied sixteen-year-old Daniel Villegas into falsely confessing to two murders. Where were his parents? Where was his lawyer? And why, after eighteen years in prison, does the district attorney want to keep him locked up?
The Stand Up Desk
December 16, 2013
Tenacious P Strikes Again
A remarkable and richly deserved award for Pam Colloff
Criminal Justice
November 27, 2013
Wrongfully Convicted Grandma Freed
After Fran Keller spent 21 years in prison based on allegations by children who said they were sexually abused in a satanic ritual at her and her husband's day care, she was finally released.
Norwood Trial
March 20, 2013
Critical Evidence
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?
Norwood Trial
March 19, 2013
Michael Morton Takes the Stand and Faces His Late Wife’s Alleged Killer
Prosecutors say they will prove that Norwood sold a .45 pistol that was stolen from the Morton home.
Criminal Justice
January 21, 2013
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.
True Crime
January 21, 2013
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?
Behind the Lines
January 21, 2013
Fed Up!
Sure, Texas’s criminal justice system is tough. But as Fort Worth inmate Richard LaFuente could tell you, the federal criminal system is even tougher.
Web Exclusive
January 21, 2013
Another Tale of Wrongful Conviction?
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.
Editor's Letter
January 21, 2013
The Scales of Injustice
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
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.
Feature
January 21, 2013
Trials and Errors
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.
Feature
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?
Behind the Lines
January 20, 2013
Life After Death
It’s time to halt executions in Texas.
Feature
January 20, 2013
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
Web Exclusive
January 20, 2013
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.
January 20, 2013
Searching for Truth
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.
Editor's Letter
January 20, 2013
Tenacious P
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,
Web Exclusive
March 31, 2012
Justice in Time
Fifteen years after being released from death row, Kerry Max Cook is still looking for freedom.
News & Politics
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
Web Exclusive
June 30, 2011
Rick Perry v. Forensic Science
Larry Swearingen has ten scientists and doctors who say he isn't a killer. He also has a new execution date.
Politics & Policy
August 31, 2007
Craig’s List
Of the many things the first black district attorney of Dallas County is doing, none is more important than rethinking the concept of guilt and innocence.