Dear Friends, In recognition of Social Worker Appreciation Month, we want to take a moment to celebrate the incredible work of the social workers at Texas Defender Service. At TDS, our social workers are rooted in mitigation investigation—an approach that centers the full humanity of the people we serve. Through comprehensive life history investigations, they uncover and […]
Dear Friends, On April 17, 2026, we will be hosting an important in-person legal training in partnership with the University of Texas School of Law: From Voir Dire to Sentencing: Constructing the Capital Defense Narrative. This program will bring together attorneys and advocates to focus on strengthening representation in death penalty cases. Trainings like this are an […]
Dear Friends, In newly filed amicus curiae briefs, a broad coalition of experts, advocates, and exonerees is urging the United States Supreme Court to review the case of Charles Flores, a man on Texas’s death row whose conviction relied heavily on an eyewitness identification shaped by investigative hypnosis-a technique now widely discredited by modern science. Mr. Flores’s petition for writ […]
Dear Supporters, I am thrilled to share that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has overturned our client Ramiro Martinez’s unconstitutional sentence of mandatory juvenile life without parole! Over a decade ago, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that mandatory life without parole sentences for children are unconstitutional. Ramiro was sentenced to mandatory life without parole […]
Dear Friends, As we enter the New Year, we want to share important news: a prosecutor has agreed to not pursue the death penalty against one of our pretrial clients. After vigorous advocacy by Texas Defender Service and our partners at the Gulf Region Advocacy Center and Advancing Real Change, Inc., the prosecutor agreed to a life sentence. Texas […]
Dear Friends, We are pleased to share that the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles granted parole for our client Allen and he is now at home. Allen is a kind, gentle man of 69 years who poses no risk to anyone. A preacher at the Pack Unit, Allen wanted nothing more than to spend what […]
