More from The Appeal:
Shelters are not meeting people’s needs, and the city is clearing encampments, says City Councilmember Roberto Treviño.
Roberto Treviño Apr 09, 2021
The city will use $1 million in funds diverted from its police budget to expand substance use treatments and harm reduction services for low-income people in Austin and Travis County.
Meg O'Connor Apr 07, 2021
Two years’ worth of data shows how disproportionately the city’s police and prosecutors target certain neighborhoods.
Jerry Iannelli Mar 26, 2021
Brian Stepter, a 61-year-old Black man, has struggled with substance use for decades. Now, prosecutors are leveraging his record against him—and forbidding references to racial justice, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Stepter’s potential sentence, or his health problems at his trial.
Meg O'Connor Mar 25, 2021
The trial budget includes a proposal to expand a crisis response program under the fire department, but also includes a $3.7 million increase to the Phoenix Police Department’s $745 million budget.
Meg O'Connor Mar 19, 2021
As Texas lifts its COVID-19 restrictions, the city’s jail remains overcrowded and its police and prosecutors continue to operate as normal.
Jerry Iannelli Mar 09, 2021
State officials funded by power companies have been warned, since at least 1989, that the power grid was at risk of failure in cold weather. They have consistently failed to act.
Jerry Iannelli Feb 26, 2021
Now, advocacy groups are struggling to keep unhoused people safe.
Jerry Iannelli Feb 19, 2021
The city will use funds diverted from its police budget to set up wraparound services for the people who will live at the hotel.
Meg O'Connor Feb 04, 2021
The City Council voted to buy one hotel and use funds diverted from its police budget to set up wraparound services for the homeless people who will live there.
Meg O'Connor Jan 27, 2021
The City Council will decide whether to buy two hotels and use funds diverted from its police budget to set up wraparound services for the homeless people who will live there.
Meg O'Connor Jan 26, 2021
Dubious DNA evidence—and a potential coverup by the Travis County DA’s office—are at the heart of a judge’s recommendation that Areli Escobar gets a new trial.
Jerry Iannelli Jan 20, 2021
Police and prosecutors routinely treat white domestic terrorists with kid gloves, but use the full force of the law against protesters calling for an end to police violence against Black people.
Meg O'Connor Jan 14, 2021
Incumbents Jimmy Flannigan and Alison Alter have been targeted by conservative challengers because of the council’s votes to cut police funding and repeal a ban on public camping.
Meg O'Connor Dec 01, 2020
Voters decided to keep Adel in charge of the third-largest prosecuting agency in the country. She is recovering from emergency surgery for bleeding in her brain.
Meg O'Connor Nov 11, 2020
Houston area voters re-elected Gonzalez after he supported bail reform, cleaned up the county jail, and provided aid to incarcerated people living with opioid use disorder.
Jerry Iannelli Nov 04, 2020
Sanchez is running for one of the state House seats that Democrats are hoping to flip.
Meg O'Connor Nov 02, 2020
She is running for a historically Republican-controlled seat, and if she wins, it could help turn the state House blue.
Meg O'Connor Oct 30, 2020
If she’s successful in her bid to represent Texas’s 24th Congressional District, Valenzuela will flip the district to blue and become the first Black and Latinx member of Congress.
If Chambers can unseat the Republican incumbent in her district, she said she’ll prioritize expanding Medicaid, improving public education funding, and lowering property taxes.
Meg O'Connor Oct 29, 2020
The state representative wants to pass paid family leave, repeal Arizona’s pre-Roe vs. Wade abortion ban, and increase access to the ballot through automatic voter registration and same-day registration.
Leger Fernandez, whose district includes Navajo Nation and several Pueblo reservations, wants to pass universal healthcare and improve infrastructure in tribal and rural communities.
Lauren Gill Oct 28, 2020
Quezada has supported progressive policies since starting out in the state legislature in 2012. He’s now running for his final term, which could be his most important, given the state’s changing power dynamics.
Meg O'Connor Oct 27, 2020
‘Our Congress should be reflective of the people here, and it’s not,’ the Texas resident said.
Incumbent Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel is backed by police unions and has declined to charge officers in high-profile killings. Challenger Julie Gunnigle says she wants to create an independent unit to review police use-of-force cases.
Meg O'Connor Oct 23, 2020
Fort Bend Sheriff Troy Nehls wants voters to send him to Congress despite his department’s history of jail deaths and allegations of racial-profiling.
Chrysta Castañeda wants to use the state Railroad Commission’s powers to stop energy companies from engaging in environmentally harmful practices like burning excess gas.
Jerry Iannelli Oct 22, 2020
One candidate for Maricopa County attorney says she’ll make clearing past marijuana convictions ‘universal and automatic’ if elected. The other has not said she would do anything to support expunging criminal records.
Meg O'Connor Oct 21, 2020
The state’s pre-Roe abortion ban includes mandatory prison time for people who provide or obtain abortions. Candidates for top prosecutor in Maricopa County differ on whether they would prosecute such cases.
Meg O'Connor Oct 15, 2020
The party needs to win two state House seats and three state Senate seats in next month’s election to flip the chambers. Here are the candidates running in hotly contested races.
Meg O'Connor Oct 13, 2020
Allister Adel paints herself as a reformer, but her record shows otherwise.
Meg O'Connor Oct 05, 2020
In a typical election, Natives face multiple forms of voter suppression. With more than one-third of Americans expected to vote by mail this year, Native communities are facing a new set of problems.
Kira Lerner Sep 24, 2020
Brian Stepter, a 61-year-old with chronic respiratory problems, has struggled with substance use for decades. Police and prosecutors sought the harshest sentence possible after he failed to return the car.
Meg O'Connor Sep 16, 2020
The City Council passed a budget that cut nearly $150 million from the Austin Police Department. Millions will be reinvested in services like violence prevention and supportive housing.
Meg O'Connor Aug 13, 2020
The City Council will pass a budget this week that could cut nearly $150 million in funding from the Austin Police Department. The proposal appears to have majority support.
Meg O'Connor Aug 12, 2020
Julie Gunnigle, who is running in Maricopa County, says she supports alternatives to incarceration. But a decade ago in Illinois, she prosecuted a woman for recording phone calls and helped put her in jail for 18 months.
Meg O'Connor Aug 03, 2020
The July 4th event will only serve to endanger the Black Hills National Forest, spread contagion, and continue the president’s pattern of sowing hatred and division.
Ruth Hopkins Jun 29, 2020
Prosecutors wanted to make an example of Justin Dixon, who has been in an Arizona prison for 14 years, with 37 ahead of him. Now, as COVID-19 spreads in the facility where he’s being held, his family is desperate for him to be released.
Meg O'Connor Jun 25, 2020
Lamar Burks has maintained his innocence for nearly 25 years in a murder case that has been marked by conflicting eyewitness accounts and the conviction of a DEA agent on corruption charges.
Mike Hayes Jun 22, 2020
The city wants to give the force an additional $24 million. But the department is still failing to solve crimes, and officers have shot 212 people between 2011 and 2018, killing about half.
Meg O'Connor Jun 17, 2020
Videos contradict officers’ claims that they didn’t ‘kettle’ protesters.
Jerry Iannelli Jun 12, 2020
Attorneys argued for decades that Bobby Moore was intellectually disabled when he was sentenced to death in 1980. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling led to a change in his sentence last year and cleared the way for his release.
Lauren Gill Jun 09, 2020
Harris, now 72 and blind, had been serving a life sentence for the shooting death of her husband, a man she said had abused her for years. Last month, the Arkansas Parole Board agreed to free her.
Lauren Gill Jun 05, 2020
Dion Johnson’s family wants answers about the last moments of his life.
Texas’s governor has proclaimed that ‘safe practices save lives,’ but prisoners say that advice can’t be followed in the state’s prisons, where unsanitary conditions have left the novel coronavirus ‘spreading vigorously.’
Tana Ganeva Jun 01, 2020
The Maricopa County Attorney's Office waited four years to charge Danielle Sutherland for one of the DUIs. After serving time for the others, she received treatment for her substance use issues and pursued a degree.
Meg O'Connor May 29, 2020
‘This is by far, by far, the biggest impact on our people since our return from the Long Walk in 1868,’ a Navajo Nation leader said.
Daniel Moritz-Rabson May 13, 2020
The plaintiffs want an independent expert to assess whether the facility has implemented social distancing measures, testing procedures, and hygiene practices adequate enough to reasonably protect detainees from contracting COVID-19 while in custody.
Meg O'Connor May 12, 2020
Peter Lucas was jailed overnight at a time when prosecutors across the country are actively working to reduce the number of people behind bars to stem the spread of COVID-19.
Meg O'Connor Apr 16, 2020
In Austin and across the country, service providers are dealing with spikes in demand, new logistical challenges, and mounting uncertainty about the months ahead.
Jay Willis Apr 06, 2020
The ruling is a setback for the state's so-called junk science statute.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Apr 01, 2020
John Hummel was scheduled to be executed on Wednesday. The court, citing the current health crisis, has postponed the execution for 60 days.
Lauren Gill Mar 16, 2020
With few exceptions, news outlets in Harris County, Texas, spotlight singular instances of crime to allege that legal reform policy is a threat to the public.
Jonathan Ben-Menachem Mar 13, 2020
She withstood challenges from two of her former assistant district attorneys who wanted to reform the office and reduce prosecutions of low-level offenses.
Jay Willis Mar 04, 2020
In Travis County, thousands of people continue to be prosecuted for low-level drug possession charges that reform-minded district attorneys elsewhere have committed to dropping.
Kira Lerner Mar 02, 2020
The attitude behind the Harris County district attorney’s message to ‘put down your gun and pick up an employment application’ is outdated.
Jessica Pishko Feb 19, 2020
Jones is challenging incumbent Kim Ogg in the 2020 election.
Jay Willis Feb 13, 2020
Advocates say junk science was used to convict Jimenez. DA Margaret Moore has not yet decided whether she will drop charges or retry her.
A Texas judge approved a Batson motion, then overruled it. But a transcript shows that a Black man was struck unfairly, the attorney said.
Aaron Morrison Jan 30, 2020
Garza has promised to end cash bail and address racial inequities in the legal system.
Kira Lerner Jan 28, 2020
The move is made possible by a Texas law that legalized the production of hemp last year.
Jay Willis Jan 10, 2020
Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez of Texas told The Appeal about her vision for a complete overhaul of her state’s legal system.
Kira Lerner Jan 09, 2020
Guards at the Mark Stiles Unit in Beaumont are alleged to have led the victim to a hallway where there were no security cameras.
The incumbent in the race, Jones’s former boss Kim Ogg, will not support a blanket refusal to prosecute sex workers, her office says.
Kira Lerner Dec 11, 2019
The Austin-based labor and immigrant rights attorney, who has pledged to end money bail and nonviolent drug prosecutions, is looking to unseat incumbent District Attorney Margaret Moore.
Aaron Morrison Dec 06, 2019
Report attempts to discredit decades of research on the adolescent mind.
Kira Lerner Nov 01, 2019
Last week, the City Council reinstated a “no camping” ordinance meant to discourage people experiencing homelessness from sleeping on sidewalks and outside a shelter. Advocates say the city is criminalizing poverty.
Aaron Morrison Oct 25, 2019
Christopher Lay grew up under the influence of a father who was mentally ill. Drawn into a crime at age 19, he’s now seeking a second chance that could help other young adults demand the same.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Oct 18, 2019
Tondalao Hall has served 15 years for allegedly ‘failing to protect’ her kids from their father’s violence. A parole board will now decide if that’s enough.
Roxanna Asgarian Oct 08, 2019
Some death row prisoners will be moved to another unit with access to direct sunlight, fenced-in recreation, and contact visits, department says.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Sep 28, 2019
Rodney Reed, set to be executed on Nov. 20, is innocent of a rape and murder, his lawyers say, and untested evidence will prove it. But prosecutors have pushed back, arguing the evidence is contaminated.
Lauren Gill Sep 26, 2019
Civil rights groups demand change as other states move away from the practice of isolating people sentenced to death.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Sep 25, 2019
Kim Ogg ran as a reform-minded district attorney candidate, but her office has sought two death warrants for Dexter Johnson, whose lawyer says cannot name everyday objects and has an IQ of 70.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Sep 10, 2019
A lawsuit is challenging Mohave County’s practice of charging certain people for mandatory GPS monitoring before trial.
Kira Lerner Aug 23, 2019
The family of Ricardo Treviño, an unarmed 21-year-old killed by police last year, says they’ve spent months waiting for answers on why he was shot.
Aaron Morrison Aug 07, 2019
In 2016, Madison Jensen died from opiate withdrawal at the Duchesne County jail. New court filings allege that jail staff, including its nurse, ignored her rapidly deteriorating health.
Lauren Gill Aug 01, 2019
Sarah Lustbader Jul 16, 2019
Jose Montelongo-Morales challenged the jail’s immigration detainer policy. He and some of his family members were arrested months later.
Lauren Gill Jun 18, 2019
Sarah Lustbader Jun 11, 2019
Records show Kim Ogg’s office appeared to misrepresent felony prosecutor caseloads in its $21 million budget request.
Keri Blakinger Jun 10, 2019
The ACLU of Arizona is suing Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery’s office over its alleged lack of transparency.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg May 22, 2019
‘Worst policy imaginable’ punishes, rather than treats, patients who earn less than a dollar an hour, advocates say.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg May 03, 2019
Videos and audio posted by the group and its supporters on social media raise questions about the agency’s role.
Debbie Nathan Apr 29, 2019
Tina Rodriguez was sent to prison in Texas for allegedly starving her son to death. But recent discoveries about the medical examiner who conducted the baby’s autopsy raise questions about her case.
Debbie Nathan Apr 22, 2019
In recent years, the number of people federally charged with smuggling and harboring has jumped nearly a third.
Debbie Nathan Apr 17, 2019
The legislation is part of a wave of bills across the country meant to criminalize mistakes in the name of voter fraud.
Kira Lerner Apr 12, 2019
In 2000, Lamar Burks was convicted of murder and given a 70-year sentence. But the federal indictment of a DEA agent and witnesses who say Burks is innocent have raised new questions about his case.
Mike Hayes Apr 03, 2019
Audia Jones pledges to tackle ‘brokenness in the system’ by unseating Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg.
Roxanna Asgarian Mar 07, 2019
New bills would expand access to medical marijuana, but the state's sheriffs' association promises to fight even such modest legislation.
Michael Arria Mar 04, 2019
‘There were explosions everywhere ... I had no idea who was in the house.’
Jessica Pishko Feb 05, 2019
The state uses solitary at one of the highest rates in the nation.
Kira Lerner Jan 29, 2019
Harris County Judge Darrell Jordan discusses his newly elected colleagues’ decision to withdraw an appeal of a landmark bail reform lawsuit.
Roxanna Asgarian Jan 14, 2019
The president is drawing on two decades of bipartisan support for crackdowns on traffickers to secure support for his agenda at the border.
Two women died at the Duchesne County Jail in the span of about one week in 2016. Now their families are suing in federal court.
Lauren Gill Dec 20, 2018
But more than 1,100 others are still serving sentences that voters decided were too harsh.
Kira Lerner Dec 19, 2018
An Oklahoma woman is serving 18 months in prison after being accused of failing to protect her daughter from the girl’s dad.
Roxanna Asgarian Dec 18, 2018
Opposition to Operation Stonegarden, however, is spreading; one Arizona county just rejected over $1 million of its funds.
Debbie Nathan Oct 22, 2018
A Texas jail suicide involving a woman who couldn’t make bail in a shoplifting case highlights of the plight of pretrial detainees with mental illness.
Lauren Gill Oct 12, 2018
With journalist Roxanna Asgarian.
Adam H. Johnson Aug 02, 2018
The Hart family’s apparent murder-suicide drew headlines, but the path to the tragedy started much earlier—in Texas.
Roxanna Asgarian Jul 12, 2018
Lawrence Parrish faces charges including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and remains jailed on $500,000 bond even though the Austin police admitted he never shot at them.
Michael Arria Jul 02, 2018
In the era of #MeToo, can we hold law enforcement officials accountable?
Josie Duffy Rice May 31, 2018
Public defenders say the problem has disastrous effects on their clients' cases.
Carimah Townes May 23, 2018
Aviva Stahl Apr 12, 2018
Melissa Gira Grant Apr 03, 2018
Max Rivlin-Nadler Mar 30, 2018
Lauren Gill Mar 16, 2018
Alex Hannaford Mar 02, 2018
Josie Duffy Rice Feb 28, 2018
Rebecca McCray Feb 08, 2018
Faith Johnson’s recent indictment of a Mesquite police officer for shooting an innocent man follows years of work by community activists.
Rebecca McCray Dec 21, 2017
Bryce Covert Dec 08, 2017
Jail isn’t the “appropriate place” for all that get arrested, he says
Larry Hannan Nov 10, 2017
This case was always about race,” defense attorney said.
Larry Hannan Nov 08, 2017
Former business partner of Nico LaHood will run against him after LaHood threatened to shut down his law practice
Larry Hannan Nov 06, 2017
Court watchers believe Justices will side with plaintiff
Larry Hannan Nov 04, 2017
Will the state with the second highest incarceration rate get its act together?
Carimah Townes Oct 27, 2017
Jessica Pishko Oct 16, 2017