Dear Friends, This Pride Month, we are reminded that the fight for LGBTQ+ equality and the fight against mass incarceration are intertwined. LGBTQ+ people are incarcerated at disproportionately high rates. And once they are inside prison, the harm doesn’t stop. Incarcerated LGBTQ+ people report high rates of abuse, solitary confinement, and denial of medical care. But […]
Dear Friends, Our client James spent over thirty years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. We took on James’s case and shared his story with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, and now he’s going home. James is one of 20 clients who have been granted parole since we launched our Pro Bono […]
Dear Friends, Today is a dark day in Texas. Last night, Texas executed its 600th person since the United States first reinstated the death penalty in 1976. His name was Edward Busby, and he was a Black man whom experts agreed had intellectual disability. The Fifth Circut Court of Appeals had stayed Mr. Busby’s execution but the […]
Dear Friends, The days of racial terror lynchings may be over, but racism continues to infect the Tarrant County DA’s Office, influencing who it decides should face the death penalty. But local faith and civic leaders have had enough and are speaking out. On Thursday, an inspiring group of faith and civic leaders gathered outside the […]
Dear Friends, Every year on Mother’s Day, my children always find sweet ways to honor me; but the truth is, the greatest Mother’s Day gift they give me is time together. Yet I can’t stop thinking about the mothers who won’t be spending this Mother’s Day with their children because they are incarcerated in Texas prisons. Eighty percent […]
Dear Friends, I am thrilled to share Texas Defender Service’s latest report, An Extreme Outlier: Race and the Death Penalty in Tarrant County, the Third Largest County in Texas. Even compared to the rest of Texas, historically the death penalty capital of the United States, Tarrant County is an extreme outlier, pursuing capital punishment almost exclusively against […]
