Michelle Pitcher

United States

Reporter at The Texas Observer

@TexasObserver | I have a Pulitzer lol | @UCBSOJ

Articles

The Sordid, Unscientific Story Behind Lethal Injection

2 weeks ago | texasobserver.org | Michelle Pitcher

Texas was the first U.S. state to execute someone by lethal injection, but the idea for the novel method came from Oklahoma. Our northern neighbor was the first to adopt the plan to replace the spectacle of the electric chair with something more palatable for witnesses and the public. Texas was just the first to test it out on a person.
David Wood, Set for Execution, Says He Was Never the 'Desert Killer'

1 month ago | texasobserver.org | Michelle Pitcher

Young women had been disappearing from the streets of El Paso for months before the first bodies were discovered in the desert northeast of the city. On September 4, 1987, police found the remains of Karen Baker and Rosa Maria Casio in shallow graves. The search for other missing women stretched into March of 1988, interrupted by nearly two feet of snowfall in December 1987, a weather anomaly still remembered whenever snow falls in West Texas.
Inside Fort Worth's Narcotic Farm Experiment

2 months ago | texasobserver.org | Michelle Pitcher

Texas’ history of addiction treatment can be seen as a dance in place: public opinion swings, the Legislature takes one step forward, then two political steps back. Ultimately, little progress is made. Today’s attitudes aren’t dissimilar to the century-old ones described in historian Holly M. Karibo’s new book, Rehab on the Range: A History of Addiction and Incarceration in the American West (University of Texas Press, November 2024).
When a Death Penalty 'Volunteer' Changes His Mind

2 months ago | texasobserver.org | Michelle Pitcher

Richard Tabler, 45, is the second person scheduled to be executed in Texas this year, with his death by lethal injection set for February 13. Tabler confessed to shooting and killing four people in Bell County, between Austin and Waco, in 2004. He avoided another execution date in 2010, when a federal district court stepped in to grant a stay while his lawyers petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court.
‘How Innocent Do They Have to Be?’: Texas’ First Scheduled Execution of 2025 Raises Thorny Questions

Jan 23, 2025 | texasobserver.org | Michelle Pitcher

The crime that landed Steven Nelson on Texas’ death row took place 14 years ago in a North Texas church. Now, as his February 5 execution date looms, supporters—including his wife and a well-known priest—have rallied in front another church and appealed for mercy ahead of the state’s first scheduled execution of the year. Nelson, 37, was convicted of capital murder after the 2011 robbery and killing of 28-year-old pastor Clinton Dobson, who led the NorthPointe Baptist Church in Arlington.
The Questions the Death Penalty Cannot Answer

Dec 10, 2024 | texasobserver.org | Michelle Pitcher

When the end credits rolled on I Am Ready, Warden at the Austin Short Film Festival, the entire audience seemed to exhale in unison. The short documentary, now streaming on Paramount+, chronicles the days leading up to the execution of John Henry Ramirez, a 38-year-old killed by the state in 2022. It’s a difficult watch, but a worthwhile one for people on any side of the death penalty debate.
Riding the Pines in Palestine and Rusk

Nov 27, 2024 | texasobserver.org | Michelle Pitcher

I pulled up to the train depot in the East Texas city of Palestine, $220 poorer after falling into a speed trap in the nearby town of Oakwood. The indifferent officer had given me my first-ever speeding ticket. Thankfully, I was scheduled to be a passenger, not a driver, for the next four hours.
GOP Clawing Back Dem Judicial Seats with Big Money and Big Red Wave

Nov 5, 2024 | texasobserver.org | Michelle Pitcher

A massive investment by a conservative PAC appears to have paid off in key down-ballot judicial races, most critically in the Democratic stronghold of Harris County, according to early vote tallies. The Judicial Fairness PAC pumped millions of dollars into courthouse races across the state in this election cycle, with Elon Musk helping finance the effort alongside other major GOP donors. (On September 27, the richest man in the world donated $2 million to the PAC.
Junk Science May Seal the Fate of Robert Robertson

Oct 17, 2024 | truthdig.com | Michelle Pitcher

This article was originally published by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative news outlet and magazine. Sign up for their weekly newsletter, or follow them on Facebook and X. Shortly after this story originally published on the Texas Observer, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed both a habeas corpus application and a motion for stay of execution filed by Robert Roberson’s defense team.
Legislators, Attorneys Urge State to Halt Execution of Potentially Innocent Man

Oct 17, 2024 | texasobserver.org | Michelle Pitcher

Robert Roberson, whose controversial execution is scheduled for today, could have his life spared by state lawmakers who say his 2003 conviction for killing his infant daughter was based on “junk science”, and are raising unusual procedural roadblocks. Roberson is set to be the first person to be executed after being convicted of capital murder based on the “shaken baby syndrome” theory.