Texas have inspired discussion about the pay of public officials. State representative Terry Keel, claiming to be cutting expense corners, said that he would block a bill to increase the pay of Texas judges. In an as-yet-unresolved conflict of stories, Houston representative Rodney Ellis has ties to a scandal regarding this proposed legislation, in which the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court threatened political retribution if judges were

Texas Prison Reform: A Success Story Government The prison population in the United States experienced an unprecedented expansion between the 1970s and the end of the first decade of the 21st century (Editorial Board, 2013). Beginning with a prison population of 174,000 in 1972 it grew to over 1.4 million by 2010, representing over a 700% increase (PSPP, 2010). By comparison, the growth of the U.S. population was a modest 32% during

Finally, perhaps the most onerous aspect of the death penalty is the fact that the State of Texas allows convicted criminals who are determined to be mentally retarded to face and be subjected to the death penalty. Given the fact that many consider the mentally retarded (with an IQ below 70) to be incapable of making sound decisions, it seems to represent injustice in the extreme to execute retarded individuals

Removing Judges: Texas Removing Judges Removal of Judges in Texas Texas judges, could, according to the American Judicature Society, be removed from office in four ways. To begin with, the process of removal could in this case be set in motion by the findings of the state commission on judicial conduct. This particular commission according to the American Judicature Society "investigates, and if warranted, prosecutes allegations of misconduct by Texas judges." Should preliminary

Judicial Impropriety in United States Supreme Court A judicial impropriety occurs when a judge disregards existing legal standards expected of him /her when they are discharging their roles during judicial proceedings. For instance, a judge who does not base his or her ruling on the evidence provided and the applicable laws but disregards a defendant while giving undue advantage to the prosecutor or the litigant commits judicial impropriety (Leyland & Anthony,

Capital Punishment in Texas Khalil, Samy. "Doing the impossible: Appellate reweighing of harm and mitigation in capital cases after Williams v. Taylor, with a special focus on Texas." Texas Law Review, 80(1): November 2001. Proquest Database. In this article, Khalil examines how state and federal courts have overturned death sentences, from a period covering the reinstitution of the death penalty in 1976 to 2001. The author focuses on sentences that have been