ReleaseWire Connect

A recent surveillance video obtained by news outlet Houston ABC13, reveals an incident that took place in the Houston Police Department's drunk-tank cell on March 30, 2016.  The video, which the Harris County District Attorney's Office states is currently under review by civil rights prosecutors, is the second surveillance video capturing an allegedly violent encounter between a Houston police officer and a suspect being held in the drunk tank. 

On Friday, August 28, 2015, a tragic and fatal shooting of Sheriff's Deputy Officer Darren H. Goforth occurred. While police were continuing to search for the suspect Friday evening and the next morning, a person of interest was apprehended on Saturday and officially charged with capital murder that afternoon.

Texas executes more inmates every year than any other state in the United States. On Tuesday, May 12, 2015; the state of Texas performed yet another execution. 32-year-old Derrick Dwayne Charles was put to death by lethal injection when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his last appeal. He was pronounced dead at approximately 6:00 p.m. that evening.

In 1998, when he was 13 years old, Don Collins poured gasoline on an eight-year-old boy, and then set him on fire. The boy, Robert Middleton, lived, but not without severe and permanent injuries rendering him physically disabled. For years, Middleton required intensive physical therapy to treat the injuries, and in 2011, 13 years after the incident, Middleton died shortly before his 21st birthday from skin cancer caused by the burn injuries. In February of 2015, Collins was sentenced to 40 years in prison for a capital murder charge from the childhood attack, as reported by a CBS News story.

In a mind-boggling move that left many questioning the sanity of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the Texas’ highest court ruled it legal to take upskirt photos of women and children. This shocking ruling has left many parents and women outraged.

Being accused of a crime you haven't committed can be devastating. Unfortunately, several wrongly convicted individuals are just now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel after years behind bars. Falsified claims are a serious threat and this issue is quickly becoming recognized by mainstream media. In particular, false allegations involving child sexual abuse or child abuse can wreak havoc to family relations and cause lingering stress. Recently thousands of untested DNA rape and sexual abuse kits were sent to a third party crime lab for testing after decades collecting dust in Harris County evidence rooms. Fortunately, a few cases have already been turned over after DNA evidence proved their innocence.