Update
BREAKING NEWS: Cotton to be released
Staff reports
The Paris News
Published March 30, 2007
Shaquanda Cotton is to be released Saturday from the Texas Youth Commission facility in Brownwood, according to a report from the Associated Press.
"We are glad she is getting out and are happy for her family but we have concerns about the way it is happening," Lamar County District Attorney spokesman Allan Hubbard said.
Rep. Harold Dutton, the Houston Democrat who chairs the House juvenile justice committee, said the newly appointed conservator of the Texas Youth Commission told him Cotton was being freed, according to the AP report.
"This is one of those cases that is the poster child of everything wrong with the criminal justice system," Dutton told the AP.
Dutton said he was informed of Cotton's pending release by Jay Kimbrough, who Gov. Rick Perry appointed to investigate the agency accused of ignoring multiple allegations of sexual and physical abuse of young inmates.
"Apparently, cases that get the most public attention can grab the ear of state legislators who can simply order people to be freed from incarceration," Hubbard said. "That sets an alarming precedent."
Local activist Brenda Cherry, a friend of the girl's mother, confirmed that they have been told of Shaquanda's release.
"She should be home by tomorrow," Cherry said.
Dutton told the AP late today that the 15-year-old would be released to her mother on Saturday. He said Creola Cotton was unable to pick up her daughter on Friday because of bad weather