On January 28, 2019, the Houston Police Department staged a militarized “no-knock” raid on a residence at 7815 Harding Street. The raid became infamously known as the Harding Street Raid. When the police gunfire ended, all the occupants in the…
Category: Criminal Justice Reform
2022
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Prosecutorial Misconduct
Prosecutors in Texas have a long history of suppressing what is known as “Brady material” to secure criminal convictions. This kind of prosecutorial misconduct is deliberate and calculated to either shore up or reinforce the prosecutorial narrative in a particular…
2021
The core purpose of a criminal sentence is to hold a wrongdoer accountable for their unlawful actions. Underlying purposes of sentencing can be deterrence and rehabilitation.
Criminal sentencing is most often determined by legislatively mandated ranges for particular offenses, or…
2021
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Police Misconduct | Prosecutorial Misconduct
On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated in the Audubon Ballroom located at Broadway and West 165th Street in New York City. The assassination took place at 3:00 p.m. before Malcolm could deliver his speech to the Organization of…
2021
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Police Misconduct | Uncategorized
There was a time in this country when police misconduct was casually dismissed as “just a few bad apples.” It was widely believed that the police were professional people sworn to serve and protect the public. Communities of color, however,…
2021
Category: Criminal Justice Reform
The purpose of a criminal trial is to see that justice is achieved through a truthful fact-finding process, either before a jury or judge. Innocence or guilt must be established in an ethical adversarial process overseen by a fair and…
2021
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Defense of Property | Homicide/Murder | Self-Defense
The nation is watching two trials involving four defendants who killed three innocent people who posed no threat to them: the Kyle Rittenhouse trial underway in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and the Ahmaud Arbery trial underway in Brunswick, Georgia. Each defendant is…
2021
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Prisoners Rights
The 2021 Texas Legislature was no different than its predecessors. The Republican-controlled body passed another 666 new laws that became effective on September 1—most of which did very little, if anything, to improve public safety or enhance the quality of…
2021
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Prisoners Rights
America’s prisons are in crisis, including those in Texas.
The 2021 Texas Legislature once again refused to pass a bill that would have brought air conditioning to weltering state prisons. The refusal came after the editorial board of the state’s…
2021
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Murder
Justice is an elusive, definition-defying concept—notably because its parameters and underpinnings are subjective, open to individual interpretation.
But justice is not open for individual interpretation or receptive to public debate when tainted with the smell of racism, prejudice, or bias.…