Aqua RichJo | September 25, 2026 Melissa Lucio remains on Texas death row after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected a lower court’s finding that she was innocent of her daughter’s 2007 death. Four judges dissented. The ruling does not set an immediate execution date. This case has several legal decisions that cannot be folded into one headline. Lucio was convicted and sentenced to death in 2008. In 2024, a district judge recommended overturning her conviction and fin

Aqua RichJo| September 24, 2026 If a public university can decide a drag show is not protected expression, what happens to the next performance whose meaning officials dislike? That question was at the center of September 23 arguments before the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Judges heard two disputes over drag performances at Texas A&M System campuses. Student groups say the restrictions violate the First Amendment. The university defendants say they are regulating con

Texas has until December 31, 2029, to install air conditioning in every state prison under a federal court order issued this week. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman found that extreme heat in uncooled prisons violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. He ordered prison officials to begin a plan immediately and report their progress to the court every six months.