This story was produced in partnership with the Garrison Project, an independent, nonpartisan organization addressing the crisis of mass incarceration and policing.
It was 2016, and history was being made in Houston. For the first time in 40 years, a rapidly changing Harris County had elected a Democrat as its top prosecutor—arguably the most influential role over criminal justice policy in the state’s most populous county. The sheriff would also be a Democrat, as would several new folks wearing black robes in the courthouse.
Standing on her victory stage surrounded by progressives, soon-to-be District Attorney Kim Ogg declared that her office would reject the “heavy-handed” system of her predecessors that earned the county the title of “death penalty capital of the nation.”
