Dear Supporters: After years of vigorous advocacy by Texas Defender Service and a pro bono team from O’Melveny & Myers LLP, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has ruled that our client Steven Long is constitutionally exempt from the death penalty because of his intellectual disability. Steven Long’s is one of the 39 lives we have […]
Dear Supporters, Yesterday our client, Ronald Burgos-Aviles, faced the prospect of the death penalty. Our team poured thousands of hours into Ronald’s case to tell the story of his life and why it was unjust for the State of Texas to kill him. The jury deliberated until midnight. In the end, all twelve jurors decided that […]
Dear Supporters, Yesterday, in Jones v. Hendrix, the United States Supreme Court made it even more difficult for innocent people to overturn their convictions and be freed from incarceration for crimes they did not commit. At Texas Defender Service, we know first-hand that the criminal-legal system makes mistakes. Many of our clients have compelling claims of innocence. Their […]
Dear Supporters, Next week we celebrate Juneteenth, the anniversary of the day when federal troops began to make freedom a reality for enslaved people in Texas. On June 19, 1865, federal troops in Galveston, Texas proclaimed that enslaved people in the Lone Star State had been freed by executive decree. Federal troops announced this more than two years after President […]
Dear Friends, Please join us for Texas Defender Service’s 2023 Light of Justice Luncheon, featuring Pulitzer-Prize winner James Forman Jr. as our keynote speaker and honoring Hogan Lovells. Sponsorships and tickets are on sale now! The luncheon, co-chaired by Christopher D. Porter of Quinn Emanuel and Robert H. Ford of Bradley, will be held on October 19th, 2023 from 12:00 p.m.-1:30 p.m. at […]
Dear Supporters, At Texas Defender Service, we serve at the frontlines of the criminal injustice system in Texas, advocating for justice for people harmed by mass incarceration. From our vantage, we see some of the most alarming human rights abuses our society perpetrates. We wanted to share our observations about what we see as we represent people […]
