Category: News
The scope of hate crimes in Texas will expand if a bill to make all attacks on first responders hate crimes becomes law. The bill introduced in the Texas legislature would increase penalties for attacks against any first responder, including police, firefighters and EMTs, and make them hate crimes. Texas governor Greg Abbott spoke in…
Grand jury proceedings were originally designed to provide checks and balances against oppressive prosecution or potential witch hunts. If passed, a proposal that’s currently before Texas lawmakers would make it mandatory for prosecutors to share evidence that could help a suspect’s case with grand juries. According to a Texas Tribune report, two versions of the…
It can be tough to put things into perspective when violent crimes dominate news headlines. According to the Pew Research Center, the public perception of crime rates in the U.S. is dramatically different than the reality. Crime has dropped by double digits since 2008, however, most people believe crime is actually getting worse. Here are…
Groping would become a more serious offense in Texas if a new bill filed in the General Assembly becomes law. The Texas Association Against Sexual Assault is behind new bill that would make groping a Class A misdemeanor, reported CBS. At present, the offense is a Class C misdemeanor. Critics say that makes it the…
Human trafficking is taken very seriously in Texas, a state that experiences a large amount of trafficking due to its long border with Mexico. Recently, a man from Dallas who was accused of pimping out a teenage runaway was jailed in New Braunfels after a traffic stop resulted in his arrest. A report in the…
It’s no coincidence that many of the most lurid national headlines about inappropriate relationships between teachers and students are from Texas. In 2016, Texas saw a boom in prosecutions for these types of relationships, the Houston Chronicle reported. The trend has led to the drawing up of stricter rules and a call for new legislation…
Texas is the next state to look at a controversial “bathroom bill,” – a measure that ran into trouble when it was introduced in North Carolina. The state’s Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick is proposing a bill that will prevent transgender people from using the bathroom of their choice, reported The Guardian. A similar bill was…
The case of Miguel Navarro, a Hispanic teenager, who was sentenced to 99-years in an adult prison before he could drive or reach high school, has highlighted Texas’ controversial juvenile justice system. Navarro was just 15 in 2007, when he stabbed a 20-year-old during a fight in Katy, Texas. A Houston Public Media report pointed…
Bite mark evidence as a forensic science technique used at crime scenes has been under fire for some time. Now a new paper has urged law enforcement agencies to discontinue its use. The paper in Journal of Law and the Biosciences outlines the legal basis for the rise of the bite-mark identification technique and its…
The U.S. Supreme Court is to look at whether Texas should put to death a convicted killer with an intellectual disability. Attorneys for 57-year-old Bobby James Moore argue the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest court in the state, disregarded existing medical standards in favor of outdated ones when it decided Moore wasn’t mentally…