Lori Chambers Gray Admonished

Lori Chambers Gray, judge of the 262nd District Court in Harris County, Texas, was publicly warned by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct for failing to issue required findings of fact and conclusions of law in a habeas corpus case within the deadline set by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The underlying case involved Walter Hinton Jr., who had filed a writ of habeas corpus in October 2015 arguing ineffective assistance of counsel in his felony conviction, with an amended writ filed in February 2016. In June 2018, the Court of Criminal Appeals remanded Hinton's case to the trial court and ordered findings of fact and conclusions of law within 90 days. The Commission's warning centered on Gray's failure to meet that deadline in a habeas matter — a proceeding that directly concerns a person's underlying right to liberty, making delay in that specific context more consequential than an ordinary docket backlog.