Witness to the Execution

Charles Anthony Nealy, who was executed on March 20 On March 2o, a man from Michigan came down to Texas to witness the execution of Charles Anthony Nealy, who was sentenced to death in 1998 for robbing and killing two convenience-store clerks in South Dallas in August 1997. That man…

Prison Break

Because the Friend of Unfair Park loves reading ACLU-generated reports so close to closing time, we thought we’d direct your attention to the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas’ just-released study about the prison population in Texas titled Texas: Tougher than Ever. Specifically, the report compares how Texas and New…

County Settles Suit With Inmate — For Close to a Million Bucks

The Dallas County Commissioners Court has just agreed to settle the the James Mims lawsuit that sparked a series of investigations into the troubled Dallas County Jail. Voting unanimously, the commissioners agreed to pay the families of three county inmates $950,000, an extraordinary sum for this type of litigation. Typically,…

…And the Law Won

A hearty Monday-morning “mazel tov” to a couple of local(ish) legal blogs: Unfair Park faves Grits for Breakfast, Scott Henson’s statewide crime-and-punishment round-up, and Dallas public defender Mike Howard’s The Wretched of the Earth, which deals specifically with the Dallas criminal justice system’s treatment of the indigent. Both were honored…