Dead and Undone

KXAN-TV
11/23/2020

Citing an obscure legal loophole, a Texas sheriff’s office blocked a grieving mother’s request for evidence of how her 21-year-old son died in jail. KXAN uncovered video, audio and other records of the painful days leading up to his death and his interactions with jail staff in those final hours. The reporting sparked a new review into the response to his medical needs and prompted a legislative effort to eliminate that loophole, as we revealed police agencies across Texas using it to keep details about dozens of other in-custody deaths secret.
It also led to the discovery of agencies breaking a different law requiring disclosure of certain records in such cases hundreds of times in recent years, another push from lawmakers to reform custodial death reporting by law enforcement, and this podcast season detailing our two-year investigation into these important issues.

Multi-platform Project
This investigative project was created by the station’s Catalyst team – a group of investigators that takes a multi-platform approach to complex topics like custodial deaths.
• The fourth season of our weekly investigative podcast, also called "Catalyst," leads the project, with six episodes taking a closer look at one specific case – a family denied evidence about their loved one’s death in a Texas jail cell.
• We produced an accompanying digital video short on transparency problems with custodial death reporting by law enforcement.
• We also wrote an immersive, long-form article with photos and data features to further analyze those issues and their history in the state.

Dead Suspect Loophole
KXAN focused on the state’s 21 largest law enforcement agencies, which accounted for more than a quarter of the 4,200 in-custody deaths since the loophole went into effect two decades earlier. We submitted public information requests for other individuals’ past open records requests related to deaths within those agencies. We found most agencies – including the Texas Attorney General’s Office – do not track the types of requests they receive or the legal citations they use to withhold information from requestors. It was necessary to search through each request individually to determine if it met the criteria, then build our own database of findings for the investigation.

The analysis revealed at least 154 public information requests related to 52 in-custody deaths denied under that loophole. The results are likely far greater but impossible to know, because agencies can legally destroy such record requests after just two years. Also, these are just 21 out of nearly 2,300 law enforcement agencies across the state. Our efforts have been cited during legislative hearings, and lawmakers are looking to close the loophole in 2021.

Custodial Death Reports
As protests over police brutality and racial injustice played out across the country, our team took an even closer look at people dying in the custody of Texas law enforcement. State law requires agencies to submit a specific report within 30 days to the attorney general detailing such incidents. The report is meant to promote transparency and accountability, but a KXAN investigation found hundreds of reports in recent years filed incomplete or late – leaving the public and families without answers.

KXAN used records from the attorney general’s office, as well as data compiled by the Texas Justice Initiative, a nonprofit that collects and provides criminal justice data to the public, to better understand the problem. KXAN found no instance of enforcement or punishment in Texas’ counties where the most violations happened.

KXAN found 372 reports filed later than 30 days after a person’s death, since 2015. KXAN also discovered 128 reports in that same timeframe left pending for more than a year without medical examiner results noted, according to state data. Some departments updated those incomplete reports after KXAN contacted them, and state lawmakers are now looking to see how the enforcement mechanism can be improved in 2021.

LINK to content online

Additional Content:
PODCAST SEASON PAGE
IMMERSIVE ARTICLE & DIGITAL VIDEO SHORT
DIGITAL OVERVIEW
PODCAST TRAILER
INSIDE THE INVESTIGATION

Submitted by Josh Hinkle.