Dear Friends, I wanted to make sure you saw exoneree Michael Morton’s recent opinion piece in the Houston Chronicle denouncing Texas’s efforts to roll back protections for the innocent. Michael Morton was wrongfully convicted of the murder of his wife in 1987. Separated from his then-three-year-old son, Michael spent nearly 25 years in prison before a dedicated team of […]
Dear Friends, As Mother’s Day approaches, we remember the thousands of mothers incarcerated in Texas prisons. Eighty percent of women incarcerated in Texas prisons are mothers of children under the age of 18. The number of women incarcerated in Texas has increased by 951% since 1980, at more than twice the rate of male incarceration. Women in […]
Dear Friends, We are proud to share with you an important new resource for people incarcerated in Texas and their families: Texas Defender Service’s Parole Website. The site is the first-ever clearinghouse of information for how people can advocate for themselves or their loved ones in the Texas parole review process. Incarcerated people and those who love […]
Dear Friends, We were proud to be at the Texas Legislature on Tuesday with our partners to testify against HB 3330, a bill that would roll back the Michael Morton Act. Named after Michael Morton, a father who was wrongfully convicted of the murder of his wife and spent nearly 25 years incarcerated for a crime […]
Dear Friends, To celebrate Second Chances Month, we are proud to share two important upcoming events with Texas Defender Service! To celebrate Second Chances Month, we are proud to share two important upcoming events with Texas Defender Service! On April 29th, we are co-sponsoring a film screening and discussion of In their Hands, a documentary […]
Dear Friends, On Monday, March 3rd, 2025, our Director of Special Projects Estelle Hebron-Jones joined renowned Austin filmmaker Richard Linklater and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maurice Chammah at the LBJ Library’s Future Forum for an intimate conversation about the death penalty in Texas. For those of you who couldn’t make it in person, you can now watch the recording […]
