Criminal Trials

Judge Etta Mullin Has Been Thrifty with County's Money, But Attorneys Say It Comes at a Price

When a few Dallas cops arrested a woman hanging out in the 4300 block of Colonial Avenue last year, it seemed obvious they weren't catching a criminal who had a ton of money. Officers Charles Moreland and Clayton Edwards were working undercover on March 28 when they came across Amber Buford. Morel ... More >>

Craig Watkins' Contempt Battle a Silly Distraction in Scary Times

I'm scared. One, I'm scared because of what's going on in Kaufman County. Two, I'm even more scared because of what's going on here, which seems to be one big stupid-fest. You will remember, perhaps, that Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins brought criminal charges last year against Al H ... More >>

When Innocent Prisoners Finally Go Free, Their Prosecutors Do, Too

On the trail for justice with Texas' exonerees.

Dallas County Judge Who Ruled Death Penalty Unconstitutional Is Forced To Recuse Herself

Teresa Hawthorne, the Dallas County judge who ruled that the state's death penalty statute was unconstitutional, must recuse herself from a capital murder case, a judge ruled today. Hawthorne was presiding over the capital murder trial of Roderick Harris, who's accused of killing brothers Alfredo ... More >>

Breaking: Mistrial Just Declared in Trial of Colony Man Accused of Murdering His Lover

Richard Hernandez​His family, defense attorneys -- even the bailiffs and the transport drivers -- noticed something was different about Seth Winder, who is standing trial in a Denton County court for allegedly murdering his 38-year-old lover Richard Hernandez in 2008, dismembering his body and ... More >>

In the Collin County courthouse, due process has a funny way of expressing itself: payback, personal vendettas and overzealous prosecutions.

Clay Chabot Pleaded Innocent For Decades. But Suddenly, He Copped to Murder in Court Today.

Clay Chabot​Behind bars for more than 20 years, after being found guilty of the 1986 rape and murder of a Garland woman named Galua Crosby, Clay Chabot always maintained he was innocent. This morning, that all changed: In a Dallas courtroom,  Chabot pleaded guilty to Crosby's murder. He was p ... More >>

Craig Watkins's Campaign Says Danny Clancy's TV Ads Are Misleading Voters By Claiming Watkins Hasn't Prosecuted a Case as DA

If you've seen Republican Danny Clancy's latest political ad above or his first one, you know what he views as District Attorney Craig Watkins's biggest wart: never prosecuting a felony case. But that's not true, according to Kurt Watkins, Craig's cousin and campaign manager. In fact, Craig exami ... More >>

Operation Streamline costs taxpayers millions, tramples on the Constitution, treats immigrants like cattle and doesn't work. So why are the feds so committed to it?

Dallas DA, DPD Reopen 1997 Murder Case, and Discover They Convicted the Wrong Men

Dallas County District AttorneyClaude Simmons is one of two men being exonerated for a 1997 murder he did not commit.​Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins's office sends word this morning that two men convicted of murder in October 1997 -- 54-year-old Claude Alvin Simmons Jr. and 39-year- ... More >>

How the Feds Convicted Don Hill

Beating a DWI case may soon get a lot tougher

The Case of the "Straw Borrowers" and Millions Missing in Mortgage Fraud

Yesterday in Dallas federal court, the U.S. Attorney's Office unsealed a 71-page, 51-count indictment against 11 people the government claims defrauded banks and mortgage lenders out of millions of dollars. Among those indicted: 55-year-old Eric Rulack Farrington Jr., who, if found guilty, could win ... More >>

Sharon Keller is Texas' Judge Dread

When Sharon Keller turned off the clock on a Death Row inmate's last-gasp appeal, she became the most vilified judge in Texas

DNA Evidence Ain't No "Get Out of Jail" Free Card for One Man

More than two decades after being convicted of murder, Clay Chabot will get another trial. Clay Chabot stays in prison -- for now. For 21 years, Clay Chabot has been imprisoned for the 1986 murder of Galua Crosby. But a A DNA test has implicated the state’s chief witness against him, Gerald Pabs ... More >>

A Very Trying Capital Murder Case in Hunt County

Hunt County District Attorney Duncan Thomas The strange capital murder case of Brandon Woodruff, accused of killing his parents in Royse City in October 2005, has taken another odd twist. A graduate of Rockwall High School, Woodruff, now 21, has been in the Hunt County jail almost two years, unable ... More >>

A Devil's Deal in Dallas Court

A terrible crime plus skaky evidence tempts prosecutors to play a secret game of "let's make a deal"

Chelsea's Story

A self-portrait from Chelsea Richardson's Web site A few new developments in an old story: I was an intern when Glenna Whitley and I wrote about the brutal murder of a Mansfield couple named Rick and Suzanna Wamsley in 2003. Their son, Andrew Wamsley, and his girlfriend, Chelsea Richardson, have bee ... More >>

Of Note

Sloppy record keeping causing headaches in criminal appeals

Chains of Evidence

How did Dallas convict so many innocents? With faulty eyewitnesses, sloppy police work and overzealous prosecutors.

Witness for the Prosecution

Did lack of manpower leave a felon on bail free to kill? Maybe. Sort of.

Justice for Emily Dowdy? Okie-Dokie.

Mud Wrestling

Denton County's new district attorney challenged on his claims to be Mr. Clean

DA Does Have an Open-File Policy....Not

Dallas County District Attorney's Office flack Rachel Raya can say whatever she wants, but she may be the only person who actually believes that Bill Hill has a real open-file policy. A few months ago, I spoke to several defense attorneys who describe a haphazard, unpredictable process that clogs up ... More >>

Target Practice

Brian Gray, at left, says Shelley Hallman is hanging up pictures of him affixed to a shooting-range target. Dude, who hasn't been there? Felony prosecutor Shelley Hallman, who prosecutes death penalty cases and has a knack for acting like a 7-year-old, has struck again. The wife of failed district a ... More >>

Accidental Victors

Wait...we voted for who?

All Shook Up

Prosecutor Shelley Hallman, the wife of Republican candidate for District Attorney Toby Shook, will probably not be asked to write the couple's Christmas cards this year. In this week's feature story about the questionable legal tactics of prosecutor Shelley Hallman, we include a rather unprofession ... More >>

Can I Get a Witness?

The District Attorney's Office gets the right guy for the wrong reason.

Craig's List

Debtors like Craig Watkins used to end up in jail. Now they run for district attorney.

Train Kept on Rollin'

Emily Dowdy's case hangs on a judge's opinion of her own performance on the bench

Wamsley: Guilty

After two and a half hours of deliberations, jurors in Andrew Wamsley's capital murder trial returned a guilty verdict this afternoon. With tears in their eyes, Wamsley's family stared at him as the verdict was read. As he was throughout the trial, Wamsley was stoic when the guilty verdict was annou ... More >>

Republicans Heart the Defense

Oklahoma Railroad

Accused of killing a cop's son, Emily Dowdy learns the hard way that in Oklahoma City justice isn't blind. It works for the prosecution.

Psycho Mom

Lisa Diaz had to save her "precious babies" from an evil world. She drowned them.

Counsel for the Defense

At 76, flamboyant criminal lawyer Racehorse Haynes keeps doing what he does best--winning

Echoes of Hate

Bobby Frank Cherry is one of the most notorious racist killers in American history. To Tom Cherry, he was just "Dad."

Open Season

Border authorities fear a return to the law of the Wild West as Texas homeowners take up guns against illegal Mexican immigrants

Dallas' Kangaroo Court

In municipal court, they'll plead you guilty when you don't even know you're on trial

Sects and Lies

Did the isolated, unhappy life of an Arlington family of Jehovah's Witnesses breed false charges of sexual abuse? Absolutely, says a family member who never got a chance to tell her side of the story.

Innocent as Charged

After his acquittal on an assault charge, Clark Birdsall questions the system he once embraced

Victimless crime

Bungling thieves, piles of gold, jailhouse snitches, and bloody clothes. Prosocuretors in Madalyn Murray O'Hair's disappearance had everything -- except three corpses

Parting shots

A triple murderer freed from prison runs into his old nemeses on the way back to the pen

Good time Charlie

The don of Dallas criminal lawyers, Charles Tessmer reshaped justice through decades of hard-fought cases and hard drink

Dissed robes

On the prosecution-biased Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, justice isn't blind. It's dumb.

A woman scorned

A suspect in Madalyn Murray O'Hair's disappearance is sentenced, but for which crime?

Innocence Lost

Railroaded onto death row, Kerry Max Cook endures rapes, beatings, and suicide attempts while waiting for justice

Innocence lost

Prosecutors lied and cheated to put Kerry Max Cook on death row for 16 years. He's out of prison now, but still not quite free.

Cowtown Babylon

When Fort Worth oil tycoon Tex Moncrief accused his secretary of embezzlement, she says, he left out one important detail: their 16-year affair

Defending Darlie

Wealthy Waco businessman Brian Pardo spends his time and money helping death-row inmates he believes are innocent. His efforts on behalf of Darlie Routier have raised suspicions about her husband--and about Pardo's motives.

Unreasonable Doubts

Justice may be blind, but Dallas jurors aren't--particularly when it comes to race