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Jolie McCullough reports on criminal justice issues and policy for The Texas Tribune. She came to the Tribune in early 2015 from the Albuquerque Journal, where she worked for four years on breaking news and data-driven projects. She is a graduate of Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication; while there, she interned as a reporter and online producer at the Arizona Republic and served as the web editor of the student-run newspaper, the State Press.
The judge ruled that the exemption to Abbott’s statewide face mask mandate put a discriminatory burden on Black and Latino voters. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is poised to hear an appeal. Full Story
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The court upheld Gov. Greg Abbott's authority under state law to limit ballot drop-off locations, issuing what is expected to be the final ruling in numerous lawsuits that challenged his order. Full Story
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A state district court judge had ruled against the longstanding requirement for a doctor's note to ask for an emergency absentee ballot, saying many people who test positive for the coronavirus don’t interact with a physician. Full Story
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The state is continuing to fight a Travis County district court's ruling that overrode Gov. Greg Abbott's order limiting counties to one absentee ballot drop-off location. Full Story
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A last-minute challenge by the Republican parties of Texas and Harris County argued the largely Democratic county's new drive-thru polling places were illegal. Full Story
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A federal appeals court recently upheld Gov. Greg Abbott's order limiting mail-in ballot delivery locations. The Travis County lawsuit focuses on potential state law violations. Full Story
The court filing from just before early voting began was the latest GOP effort to tamp down voting options in the state's most populous county. Full Story
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An order from a federal appeals court Saturday set up another potential legal showdown over voting in Texas as mail-in ballots are already being collected and just days before early voting begins. Full Story
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The order temporarily blocks a lower court’s ruling that would have gone into effect Oct. 14 and forced Texas to provide more protective measures against the coronavirus at a geriatric prison. Full Story
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The Texas Supreme Court ruled against several GOP officials who pushed to keep early voting to a two-week period during the pandemic. Full Story
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The district attorney in Tyler County, where the grand jury indicted Netflix, is the son of U.S. Rep. Brian Babin, who has labeled the movie child pornography. Full Story
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The House members, all chairs of prominent committees, called Abbott’s order an apparent “last-ditch effort to suppress Texans’ ability to vote.” Full Story
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The Texas Rangers’ preliminary investigation found that Wolfe City police officer Shaun Lucas’ use of deadly force against Price was not “objectively reasonable.” Full Story
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Texas has had more inmate deaths related to the coronavirus than any other prison system in the nation. Its death toll of at least 162 inmates outranks every other state as well as the federal prison system. Full Story
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Abbott's campaign event came after a majority of likely Texas voters in a recent poll said that law and order is a bigger issue than the pandemic. Yet they were also more likely to say that racism in the criminal justice system is a larger problem than riots in American cities. Full Story
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Vialva was the seventh man executed in the federal execution chamber this year after a 17-year hiatus of the federal death penalty. Texas, meanwhile, is expected to have a comparatively low number of state executions this year because of the pandemic. Full Story
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Much of the overtime cuts were reallocated for other purposes in the department, including more than $3.8 million to hire nearly 100 civilian workers. Other new spending will go toward addressing root causes of crime and improving street lighting. Full Story
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The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals resentenced Juan Lizcano to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He is at least the sixth death row inmate whose sentence was reduced after the U.S. Supreme Court slammed Texas' methods for determining intellectual disability. Full Story
The Republican governor isn't on the November ballot. But he has come out hard against efforts to shift city money away from policing, echoing a national debate on policing and crime during a tumultuous election season. Full Story
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The pledge is the governor's latest political move in an election season consumed by debates on policing reforms and funding. Full Story
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