Injury Report Satisfies Texas Tort Claims Actual Notice Requirement by by Matthew T. Clarke A Texas state court of appeals has ruled that the safety investigation and accident report of an accident in which a prisoner was injured gave the prison system actual notice of the prisoner's claim as required …
Texas Guard's Conviction Reversed by A Texas court of appeals has reversed for retrial the conviction of former Texas City Unit TDCJ-ID guard Charles Melvin Page for sexual assault and impersonating a police officer. Page was convicted of having flashed a badge, claimed he was a cop, and demanded oral …
Texas Pro Se Litigant Entitled to Notice of Hearing by Texas Pro Se Litigant Entitled to Notice of Hearing A Texas court of appeals has held that a pro se litigant who files an affidavit of indigence, when seeking to appeal an adverse ruling in a civil case in forma …
Head of Counsel for Texas Prisoners Fired by In September 2002, the Texas Board of Criminal Justice fired John Fant, head of the State Counsel for Offenders (SCFO), after an investigation revealed that he had lied on a 10-year-old employment application. In a written statement, the prison board alleged that …
Texas Grants Prisoners Right to Forensic DNA Testing by by Matthew T. Clarke The Texas state legislature has enacted what may be the most pro-prisoner post-conviction DNA testing entitlement law in the country. Codified at Chapter 64 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, the law gives any convicted person …
Property Use Versus Non-Use Texas Tort Claim Standard Explained in Medical Death Claim by by Matthew T. Clarke The Texas Supreme Court (TSC) has held that using pain medication to fatally mask meningitis symptoms was not a "use" of tangible state property within the meaning of the Texas Tort Claims …
Texas Syndicate Gang Members Busted - Again by C.C. Simmons by C. C. Simmons Deep in the bowels of the 4,000-man H. H. Coffield State Prison in east Texas, a young prisoner is locked in a telephone-booth-size holding cage. He screams obscenities at everyone. In the next corridor, a squad …
Tulia Travesty Settled for $6 Million by Hans Sherrer Tulia Travesty Settled For $6 Million by Hans Sherrer On August 22, 2003, Texas Governor Rick Perry pardoned 35 people whose convictions stemmed from a Swisher County drug investigation that began in 1998. The prosecution of those people began with the …
Criminal Guards and Escaping Prisoners in Texas by On July 21, 2002, Lt. Rick McCullough was arrested for assaulting two female guards at the Riverside State Prison for women in the central Texas town of Gatesville. McCullough, 41, a Texas prison guard assigned to the nearby Woodman State Jail for …
Texas Eliminates Habeas Corpus Following Probation Revocation by The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) has eliminated the habeas corpus exception to the prohibition against attacking the original conviction after revocation of probation. Timothy Lee Jordan, a Texas state prisoner, was convicted of theft and robbery and placed on probation. …
Texas' Historic Ruiz Lawsuit Settled by Donna Brorby by Donna Brorby and Meredith Martin Rountree One of the biggest prison class actions of our time is over. As appeals by both sides were pending in the Fifth Circuit, the historic Ruiz class action lawsuit against the Texas Department of Criminal …
$27,848.30 Award in Texas Jail Slip and Fall Upheld by An award of $27,848.30 to a pris-oner who slipped and fell on a food spill in a Texas jail has been upheld by a Texas state court of appeals in an unpublished opinion. Mickey Caves, a Dallas County (Texas) Jail …
Texas Cannot Use Enhancement to Deny Mandatory Supervision by The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas has held that the fact that a felony has been enhanced to a higher degree felony cannot be used to deny a prisoner mandatory supervision release (MSR). Nathaniel Elbert Coleman, a Texas state prisoner, …
Medical Care Still Deficient in Texas Prisons by Gary Hunter Deficient medical care at the unit level has Texas prisons incubating a new, more virulent strain of HIV. Dr. William Obrien is one of the most noted doctors on staff with the University of Texas Medical Branch. (UTMB) Over a …
Texas May Not Revoke Parole Without a Hearing by The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has held that the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole's (BPP's) policy of revoking the parole of a parolee in an Intermediate Sanctions Facility (ISF) without a hearing was unconstitutional. Kevin Todd Catham, a Texas …
Texas Extends 6th Amendment Right to Prisoners: Confidential Attorney Calls Allowed by On December 14, 2001, Texas finally released its stranglehold on the right to confidential phone calls between prisoners and attorneys. Texas had been the only state that monitored attorney phone calls. Even then the American Civil Liberties Union …
Prisoners, Politics, Money and the Census by Gary Hunter It's a standing joke that the Texas economy has been grounded in the 3 C's: cattle, crude, and convicts. But while Texas gets most of the publicity for its massive prison build-up, the human-warehousing trend is literally sweeping the countrysideand it …
Administrative Exhaustion Required But Unprejudiced; Dismissal and Equitable Tolling by Gary Hunter The 5th Circuit court of appeals, in accord with a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, held that administrative exhaustion is required in all prisoner cases, regardless of the relief sought. It held that cases pending at the time …
Escapes Plague Texas Jails by Gary Hunter A rash of escapes have plagued Texas jails over the past year. On January 28, 2002, four prisoners used a homemade knife to overpower two guards and force their way out of Montague County jail near the Texas/Oklahoma border. The four were eventually …
Ingram v. Scott Reversed: TDCJ-ID in Compliance with Section 501.008 by by Matthew T. Clarke On appeal following remand, a Texas court of appeals has held that the instructions on a grievance form bring TDCJ-ID into compliance with the requirement in section 501.008, Texas Government Code, that the Texas Department …
