Dear Friends, We want to invite you to two important and exciting upcoming events in Austin, Texas. But wherever you live, your advocacy for change to our criminal-legal system here in Texas matters. For those of you who can’t make it in person, we will continue to follow up about how you can engage with […]
Dear Friends, At Texas Defender Service, we’ve received a lot of questions on social media about the U.S. Attorney General’s sweeping memo announcing her intentions to expand use of the death penalty. In that memorandum, the Attorney General stated that her office would assist states in prosecuting capital crimes. The Attorney General also announced that federal […]
Dear Friends, Signed just hours after he returned to office, President Trump’s Executive Order to “restore” the death penalty demanded that the United States Attorney General try to overturn long-standing U.S. Supreme Court precedents that protect the constitutional rights of people facing a capital sentence. Then, just yesterday, the U.S. Attorney General issued a sweeping memo announcing their intentions […]
Dear Friends, In 2024, Texas Defender Service launched our Pro Bono Parole Program, which connects deserving candidates seeking parole with pro bono attorneys who can advocate for their release home. In just a few months, four of our clients have already been granted parole. One of them is Christopher, a father of four who had been […]
Dear Friends, Today, President Biden has taken the historic step of commuting the sentences of nearly 2,500 people serving long prison sentences for nonviolent drug offenses, the broadest commutation of individual sentences ever by a U.S. president. This act recognizes the importance of second chances and acknowledges the racial inequalities caused by extreme sentences in the […]
Dear Friends, Yesterday, President Biden commuted 1,500 sentences in a single day. His action was a historic and inspiring first step in using his executive power to address the harms perpetuated by our criminal-legal system. But President Biden can and should do more—by commuting the sentences of all 40 people on federal death row to […]
