The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear an appeal by a Texas man who faces the death penalty for his role in the 1998 murder of an elderly mobile home park owner and is seeking DNA testing of evidence from the crime scene.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case of a Texas man on death row who has long argued that DNA testing would help prove he didn't kill an 85-year-old woman during a home robbery decades ago.

Many state prison inmates in Texas, including people on death row, are eligible to vote — and might not even know it.

The highest court in the land did reject Reed’s request for a new trial in July of 2024. The rejection means the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’ decision to deny Reed a new trial stands. The court ruled in 2023 that the testimony of 47 new witnesses in a 2021 evidentiary hearing would not have changed the outcome of Reed’s original trial.

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments Monday on two issues pursued by death-row prisoner Rodney Reed, including Texas’ interpretation of post-conviction DNA testing and Reed’s claims of prosecutorial misconduct and exclusion of vital evidence in his case.

Under a little-known Texas elections law, state prison inmates who are actively appealing their convictions are eligible to register and vote.

Ruben Gutierrez was sentenced to death for the 1998 Brownsville murder of an elderly woman. His execution was stayed in July.

Robert Roberson is set to die this month in what would be the nation's first execution for "shaken baby syndrome," a scrutinized diagnosis that has been successfully challenged in some criminal cases.

A man in Texas is scheduled to be put to death later this month, in what would be the country's first execution for "shaken baby syndrome". The controversial diagnosis has been successfully challenged in some previous criminal cases.