Ronald Dale Earle was an American politician and judge who was,from January 1977 to January 2009,the District Attorney for Travis County,Texas. He became nationally known for filing charges against House majority leader Tom DeLay in September 2005 for conspiring to violate Texas' election law and/or to launder money. In Texas,Earle was known for his criminal justice reform efforts which focused on crime prevention,alternative sentencing,victim advocacy,and the reintegration of former offenders into society. In 1983,Earle - an Eagle Scout - prosecuted himself for an election law violation after missing a campaign finance filing deadline by one day;he was fined $212. Earle was a fixture in Travis County politics and served in public office there for more than 30 years,joking that he was asked if he was the "District Eternity".
The structure of the judiciary of Texas is laid out in Article 5 of the Constitution of Texas and is further defined by statute,in particular the Texas Government Code and Texas Probate Code. The structure is complex,featuring many layers of courts,numerous instances of overlapping jurisdiction,several differences between counties,as well as an unusual bifurcated appellate system at the top level found in only one other state:Oklahoma. Municipal Courts are the most active courts,with County Courts and District Courts handling most other cases and often sharing the same courthouse.
The Supreme Court of Texas (SCOTX) is the court of last resort for civil matters in the U.S. state of Texas. A different court,the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA),is the court of last resort in criminal matters.
The 1991 Austin yogurt shop murders were an unsolved quadruple homicide which took place at an I Can't Believe It's Yogurt! shop in Austin,Texas,United States on Friday,December 6,1991. The victims were four teenage girls:13-year-old Amy Ayers,17-year-old Eliza Thomas,17-year-old Jennifer Harbison and Jennifer's 15-year-old sister Sarah. Jennifer and Eliza were employees of the shop,while Sarah and her friend Amy were in the shop to get a ride home with Jennifer after it closed at 11:00 pm. Approximately sixty minutes before closing time,a man who had tried to hustle customers in his queue was permitted to use the toilet in back,took a very long time and may have jammed a rear door open. A couple who left the shop just before 11:00 pm,when Jennifer locked the front door to prevent more customers entering,reported seeing two men at a table acting furtively.
Texas Moratorium Network (TMN) is a grassroots non-profit organization with the primary goal of mobilizing statewide support for a moratorium on executions in Texas. It has about 20,000 members,about 85 percent of whom reside in Texas.
Tom DeLay,a Republican U.S. Representative from Texas from 1979–83,and from 1985–2006 and the House Majority Leader from 2003–05,was convicted in 2010 of money laundering and conspiracy charges related to illegal campaign finance activities aimed at helping Republican candidates for Texas state office in the 2002 elections. In 2013,a Texas Court of Appeals panel acquitted DeLay when it overturned his conviction. This decision was affirmed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on October 1,2014. DeLay had three years from that date,i.e. until October 1,2017,to file any lawsuits for wrongful action.
This is a list of notable overturned convictions in the United States.
Sharon Faye Keller is the Presiding Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. She is a Republican.
Charles Ruford Holcomb is a retired Texas judge who served on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals from 2001 to 2010.
Timothy Brian Cole was an African American military veteran and a Texas Tech University student wrongfully convicted of raping a fellow student in 1985.
Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr. is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the Attorney General of Texas since January 2015. Paxton is a Tea Party conservative. Paxton was re-elected to a second term as Attorney General in 2018. He previously served as Texas State Senator for the 8th district and the Texas State Representative for the 70th district.
The innocent prisoner's dilemma,or parole deal,is a detrimental effect of a legal system in which admission of guilt can result in reduced sentences or early parole. When an innocent person is wrongly convicted of a crime,legal systems which need the individual to admit guilt —as,for example,a prerequisite step leading to parole —punish an innocent person for their integrity,and reward a person lacking in integrity. There have been cases where innocent prisoners were given the choice between freedom,in exchange for claiming guilt,and remaining imprisoned and telling the truth. Individuals have died in prison rather than admit to crimes that they did not commit.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in the U.S. state of Texas since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling of Obergefell v. Hodges on June 26,2015.
William Drew Darby,known as Drew Darby,is a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives from his native San Angelo,Texas. He represents District 72,which comprises the West Texas counties of Coke,Concho,Glasscock,Howard,Irion,Reagan,Runnels,Sterling,and Tom Green.
The California Innocence Project is a non-profit based at California Western School of Law in San Diego,California,United States,which provides pro bono legal services to individuals who maintain their factual innocence of crime(s) for which they have been convicted. It is an independent chapter of the Innocence Project. Its mission is to exonerate wrongly convicted inmates through the use of DNA and other evidences.
Rosemary Lehmberg is an American attorney who was the District Attorney of Travis County,which includes the capital city of Austin,Texas. She began working in the District Attorney's office in 1976. She headed many Divisions of the DA's office,establishing the Travis County Children's Advocacy Center,and was called "The Best Lawyer for Children's Issues" by The Austin Chronicle. In 2009,she became the first female District Attorney in Travis County. Lehmberg served eight years as Travis County’s district attorney before retiring in January 2017.
On August 15,2014,Texas Governor Rick Perry was indicted by a Travis County grand jury,but has since been cleared on all charges. The first charge of the indictment was abuse of official capacity,a first-degree felony,for threatening to veto $7.5 million in funding for the Public Integrity Unit,a state public corruption prosecutors department. The second charge,which has since been ruled unconstitutional,was coercion of a public servant,a third-degree felony,for seeking the resignation of Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg,a Democrat,after she was convicted of drunk driving and incarcerated. Lehmberg was a district attorney in Travis County,Texas,and the Travis County DA's office managed the Public Integrity Unit's operations. The veto was seen as retribution for Lehmberg not stepping down. Perry pleaded not guilty to both charges.
David Christopher Newell is an American judge,who serves on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals,the court of last resort in criminal cases within Texas. A resident of Houston,Newell was elected to the court in 2014 to succeed the retiring Place 9 Judge Cathy Cochran.
Elsa R. Alcala,also known as Elsa Spjut,is a former Republican official who most recently served (2011–2018) as one of the nine judges of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals,the court of last resort for state criminal appeals. She was appointed to the Place 8 on the bench by then Governor Rick Perry,when Charles Holcomb stepped down to run unsuccessfully in 2012 for the United States Senate. On July 16,2019 she announced she was leaving the Republican Party to support Democrats at the state and national level.
Julie H. Kocurek is an American attorney and judge who is currently a Texas state court judge,having served as presiding judge of the 390th District Court in Austin,Texas since January 1999,being appointed by then-governor George W. Bush. Prior to serving as a Texas state judge,Kocurek served as an Assistant District Attorney in Travis County for seven years.
