Capital Punishment

The Wife of Eric Williams, Lead Suspect in Kaufman County Slayings, Has Been Charged with Murder [Updated]

Update, 1:05 p.m.: Authorities say Kim Williams has confessed. See update and the affidavit below. Since he was arrested over the weekend, speculation has been that former Kaufman County Justice of the Peace Eric Williams would be indicted on capital murder charges at any second in the slayings of ... More >>

Greg Abbott Backs DNA-Testing Bill, Continues Unprecedented Streak of Reasonableness

Greg Abbott's acting strangely. It wasn't even two weeks ago that the Attorney General seemed to have given up his day job suing the Obama administration and just started trolling liberals full-time. But then, in a turn that was completely unexpected, Abbott was seized by an bout of reasonableness ... More >>

"The Carpet Was Still Wet in the Courtroom When He Sat Down For His First Lovely Meal On Death Row."

Tarrant County jailers are breathing a collective sigh of relief: Ladies and gentlemen, Steven Lawayne Nelson has left the building. Convicted and sentenced to death for suffocating a 28-year-old Arlington preacher and suspected in the killing of a fellow inmate, Nelson's new home is the Polunsky Un ... More >>

Steven Lawayne Nelson Sentenced to Death for the Murder of an Arlington Preacher

Update: Steven Lawayne Nelson, who was just handed a death sentence in the suffocation of an Arlington preacher, has flooded his holding cell and the courtroom, according to Star-Telegram reporter Dianna Hunt's Twitter feed. She said he could be heard screaming as water began seeping into the courtr ... More >>

John Steinbeck's Son Thinks Texas Should Stop Using Dad's Character to Decide Which Mentally Retarded Prisoners to Execute

Lennie Small was the simple-minded field worker in Of Mice and Men who, in a moment of confused panic, inadvertently kills the wife of the boss' son. He's an iconic character in American literature, so iconic that Texas used him as a benchmark to help decide when it's okay to execute intellectually ... More >>

DA Craig Watkins Tells AP He Wants Texas to Take a Long, Hard Look at the Death Penalty

​As Leslie noted yesterday, in her piece about Judge Andy Chatham finally, officially declaring Richard Miles innocent two years after he was let out of prison, Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins noted, out of nowhere, that his great-grandfather had been executed by the state of Texas. ... More >>

Who's Guarding the County's Guardians?

Dallas County appointed a hate-group found to a homeland security committee. Feel safe yet?

Craig Watkins On Why Man Found Guilty of Murder, For Third Time, Won't Get Death

​Earlier today, Jennifer Emily noted that Jonathan Bruce Reed was found guilty of the 1978 murder of Braniff Airlines flight attendant Wanda Jean Wadle -- the third time he's been convicted of raping and strangling her in her Northeast Dallas apartment. (Prior convictions -- based upon the testimo ... More >>

A&M to the SEC: Didn't We Just Have this Conversation?

​The grand ol' Southwest Conference lived to be 80. The Big 12 Conference may die a teenager.Only 17 and just a year removed from turmoil that left it with just 10 teams but supposedly unity and cohesion, the conference is again this morning reeling with the news that Texas A&M -- irked b ... More >>

Two Days Before He's to Die, Stroman Talks to CBS News About Victim's Fight to Save Him

Courtesy CBS NewsMark Stroman, who is scheduled to die Wednesday, talks to Don Teague about his jailhouse conversion.​As you're no doubt well aware by now, Mark Stroman is scheduled to die down in Huntsville on Wednesday for killing Waqar Hasan, a Pakistani father of four who was gunned down on Se ... More >>

From the Comments: Kerry Max Cook Says Adios to His Old Friend, Randall Dale Adams

Photo by Mark GrahamKerry Max Cook​Speaking of the wrongly imprisoned ...On Saturday, we stopped to take note -- belatedly -- of the passing of Randall Dale Adams, whose October death didn't reach newspapers till late last week. Adams, of course, was freed from prison in '89 following the release ... More >>

A Belated Farewell to The Thin Blue Line's Randall Dale Adams, "The First Innocent Man"

Via.Randall Dale Adams's mugshot for the crime he did not commit​"It's an Everyman's story. It's the story of someone slipping through the cracks -- if you like, a nonfiction Twilight Zone episode." That was filmmaker Errol Morris talking, in 1988, about his documentary The Thin Blue Line -- other ... More >>

Rais Bhuiyan, Victim of Post-9/11 Hate Crime, Calls for Forgiveness for His Attacker

Photo by Alex ScottRais Bhuiyan speaking to a group from Amnesty International at SMU earlier this spring​On September 21, 2001, Rais Bhuiyan, then 27 years old, was working behind the cash register of a Texaco station in Pleasant Grove when a man wearing a bandanna, sunglasses and a baseball ... More >>

Dallas-Born The D.O.C. Speaks Out Against Dr. Dre, Shares Insight Into Death Row's Launch

​It's easy, sometimes, to forget who the greatest rapper Dallas ever spawned is -- especially when considering that, for the past 20 years, he's worked in a largely behind-the-scenes role, ghost-writing for other rappers and working closely as a mentor to genre luminaries Dr. Dre and Eminem.But, n ... More >>

In Heated DA's Debate, Craig Watkins Accuses Danny Clancy of Lacking Brain and Backbone

Photos by Sam MertenCraig Watkins​Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins and Republican challenger Danny Clancy stared each other down and traded barbs this afternoon at the Belo Mansion during their first debate, and tensions peaked when Watkins was asked what three issues the two cand ... More >>

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 >>

Fort Worth Rep. Lon Burnam Goes After "Killer" Judge Keller

Tomorrow, One of Dallas's "Meanest Criminals" Is Set to Die

Hours Before Texas Gets Back in the Execution Business, a Small Protest

Andrea and Glenna Star in Women on Death Row 3! Not What You Think.

The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas Is a ... Waitaminute ... "Support Group"?

Waiting for Death

Happy Birthday, Lethal Injection!

Witness to the Execution

The Buffalo Will Not Die This Week

The Buffalo Will No Longer Roam

Missed the Target | Those Crazy Baylor Grads | Frat Boys, Yeah Iced | Iced

Judge Not Lest Ye Be Screwed

You Can Run, But You Aren't Hyde

Light Sleeper?

War On War

Steve Earle wonders what's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding

Odds and Ends

The more things change, the more we try to keep up

Frozen Food

Baby chicks are sent to a freezer along with one zoo worker's job

Letters, Week of November 8

Trinity Water Torture, Sins of Omission

Stop the Press

Poor pacing and a puzzling lead wrinkle The Front Page

Bad Apples

Is a teacher's effort to free two convicted killers a rush to bad judgment?

Hand in Hand

Never mind lethal injection, there's lots of Olympic spirit here

Kiss 'em, Cowboys!

Pegasus Theatre serves up a gay romp on the range

Dead Wrong

How consummate con artist Henry Lee Lucas resurrected the dead and went looking for a sucker. He almost found one.

Out & About

Snoop Dogg

The other victim

In the media frenzy spurred by a serial killer, one small-town victim was forgotten, but not by her neighbors

Buzz

Image is everything; Death watch; Miracle cure

Good time Charlie

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

On the lam

A convicted killer flees arrest on insurance fraud charges

Blood Vow

When investigators uncovered the bodies of a Dallas mother and her young son in a makeshift Oklahoma grave, FBI agent Tase Bailey swore to bring the killer to justice

Cheating death

A notorious murder-for-hire ex-con may have reached the end of his road in Dallas

Publicity Paul

U.S. Attorney Paul Coggins loves feeding his name to the papers. But what's he done that's news?

Dead man rapping

"The D.O.C." returns with a new record and a score to settle

Out There

High voltage

Dead Man Walking hits your mind and heart like a lightning bolt