Packers' Jolly appears in Texas court after arrest

MILWAUKEE - A hearing for Green Bay Packers defensive lineman Johnny Jolly in Houston has been rescheduled for Aug. 27.

2 escapees plead not guilty to murder in Texas

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — Two convicts whose escape from a work detail last year led to the death of a corrections officer pleaded not guilty Thursday to capital murder.

Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Jerry Martin, 38, and John Ray Falk, 41, Walker County prosecutor Stephanie Stroud said.

Both inmates appeared separately during brief hearings at which prosecutors said they planned to try the pair together.

Crime lab experts testify in inmate murder trial

Testimony could wrap up today as ME takes the stand

Texas grand jury indicts polygamist sect members

ELDORADO, Texas (AP) — Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs, already convicted in Utah of rape as an accomplice and awaiting trial in Arizona on other charges related to underage marriages, is now accused of assaulting a girl in Texas in January 2005.

A grand jury in this tiny western Texas ranching community indicted Jeffs and four of his followers Tuesday on charges of felony sexual assault of a child. Another was indicted for failing to report child abuse.

Watauga teen who gave pot to toddlers gets 8 years

11:15 PM CDT on Thursday, July 24, 2008
By SCOTT GOLDSTEIN / The Dallas Morning News
sgoldstein@dallasnews.com

A Watauga man who was caught on video laughing as his 2- and 4-year-old nephews smoked marijuana last year pleaded guilty to charges in the case Thursday and was sentenced to eight years in prison, according to the Tarrant County district attorney's office.

Texas Attorney General wants federal help to fight polygamy

04:39 PM CDT on Thursday, July 24, 2008
BY SUZANNE STRUGLINSKI / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

WASHINGTON — State authorities need federal help in fighting polygamy, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott told a Senate panel Thursday, as members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints fought to get their opinions heard.

James v. State - 3rd COA

The defendant's guilty plea to sexual assault of a child should not be overturned because the trial court failed to admonish that he would have to register as a sex offender under CCP art. 26.13(a)(5). By amending CCP art. 26.13(h) to expressly provide that failure to admonish is not a ground to set aside a conviction, sentence, or plea, the legislature foreclosed any relief for the defendant. James v. State, 03-07-00487-CR.

Sims v. State - CCA

Character evidence, in the form of opinion testimony, is admissible under CCP art. 37.07 when that opinion was formulated from a specific extraneous offense that the jury was entitled to hear about. Both types of evidence are admissible in a punishment hearing, and there is no reason that they cannot be combined during punishment proceedings. Any complaint about the officer's opinion being based on a single encounter goes to the weight rather than the admissibility of

Ex parte Forward - CCA

Under CCP art. 42.18 §8(d), when sentences involve the stacking of pre- and post-1987 offenses, those sentences should be treated as one unit for the purpose of determining when a defendant is eligible for release on mandatory supervision for all sentences that are eligible for mandatory supervision. Under CCP art. 42.18 §8(c), a release date for mandatory supervision for all the mandatory-supervision-eligible sentences would be calculated as a unit, and then add the length of any mandatory-supervision-ineligible sentences to arrive at a final