Child pornography is any visual depiction that shows minors engaging in sexual activity or posing provocatively. This includes photos, videos and drawings. Some people may think they can't be charged with child pornography if they don't take the photos themselves or download them on their computers. However, even if you only looked at an image online, you could still face … [Read more...]
Texas’s New Online Prostitution Laws
Prostitution might frequently be referred to as the world’s oldest profession, but there’s no denying that things have changed over the years regarding the sex industry. Today, people who are involved in illegal sex trafficking schemes frequently use modern technology to commit their crimes. In fact, 2020 brought a 22 percent increase in online recruitment attempts for human … [Read more...]
Eyewitness Identification Problems and Police Lineup Reform
Eyewitness identification is often powerful evidence inside a courtroom. However, it’s frequently inaccurate. A recent report from The Innocence Project indicates that eyewitness identification errors were involved in 69 percent of the erroneous convictions the group overturned with DNA evidence. These eyewitness misidentification statistics make a strong case for police lineup … [Read more...]
Understanding Prostitution and Solicitation Laws in Texas
In the state of Texas, it’s a felony to solicit prostitution. The state defines solicitation as paying or offering to pay to engage in sexual conduct with an individual. A person is also considered to have solicited prostitution if they offer to pay someone for the right to have sex with a man or woman other than the person who is collecting the money. Prostitution can take … [Read more...]
A Brief History of the Death Penalty in Texas
Before 1923, each county in Texas was permitted to carry out executions in their jurisdiction however they chose. These executions were typically by hanging. But this changed in 1923, when the Lone Star state ordered that executions were to be carried out by the state, not the counties. Under this order, executions were to take place in Huntsville, TX, and would be done by … [Read more...]
Law Surrounding Firearm Possession After Domestic Violence Charge
Across the United States each year, there are an estimated 1,800 homicides each year that involve an intimate partner. Of these, half involve the use of guns. In order to curb the rates of domestic violence leading to homicide, laws have been put in place to attempt to limit offenders' access to firearms. What is domestic violence? According to federal law, it is illegal for … [Read more...]