Michelle Pitcher

4 weeks ago | texasobserver.org | Michelle Pitcher

For years, bail reform legislation has died long before it reached the governor’s desk in Texas. This session, with a strong push from the state’s top executive, measures to crack down on bail access achieved mixed results in the Capitol’s lower chamber. Last Monday, the House passed Senate Joint Resolution 5, which proposes a constitutional amendment that would force judges to deny bail to people accused of certain violent crimes.

1 month ago | texasobserver.org | Michelle Pitcher

Clinton Young stepped out of the Midland County Jail, the way station between his previous address for the last 18 years and the free world, on the afternoon of January 20, 2022. He’d been anxious all day, sitting in the cell block with an ankle monitor already affixed to his leg, awaiting release on bond. When he finally exited the building, he hugged his little sister—now a woman in her 30s—for the first time since she was 11.

1 month ago | tspantx.com | Michelle Pitcher

Matthew Johnson’s guilt was never in question. On the stand during his 2013 trial, he admitted to the crime that landed him on death row. The attack—an early morning robbery and murder in a populous Dallas suburb—was also caught on camera. Johnson is scheduled to be executed by the State of Texas on May 20, exactly 13 years to the day after he robbed a Fina Whip-In convenience store in Garland and set the store clerk on fire.

1 month ago | texasobserver.org | Michelle Pitcher

Matthew Johnson’s guilt was never in question. On the stand during his 2013 trial, he admitted to the crime that landed him on death row. The attack—an early morning robbery and murder in a populous Dallas suburb—was also caught on camera. Johnson is scheduled to be executed by the State of Texas on May 20, exactly 13 years to the day after he robbed a Fina Whip-In convenience store in Garland and set the store clerk on fire.

1 month ago | texasobserver.org | Michelle Pitcher

Edric Wilson spent 18 years awaiting a murder trial that would never come. From September 2006 until his release earlier this year, he split his time between the Harris County Jail and state psychiatric hospitals, with little or no hope of release. For 12 years, he was denied bail completely. Eventually, a judge set his bail at $850,000, which his family couldn’t afford. So he kept waiting.