In 1999, a Dallas County jury sentenced Charles Flores to death for capital murder after a burglary turned deadly in Farmers Branch. He had been placed at the scene of the crime by an eyewitness who identified him in court—but this was after an officer from the Farmers Branch Police Department hypnotized that witness during the investigation. (The Texas Observer recently released a six-part podcast about the case—The Unforgotten: “Riding Shotgun”—in partnership with Free Range Productions.)
As of 2023, evidence based on hypnosis is no longer admissible in Texas criminal courts. For decades before, though, law enforcement agencies, including the statewide Department of Public Safety, used hypnosis as an investigative tool in thousands of cases.
Based on changing attitudes about hypnosis and a growing understanding of its flaws as a memory retrieval technique, Flores has attempted to use a 2013 law—Article 11.073 of the state’s Code of Criminal Procedure, often referred to as the “junk science law”—that offers an appeals avenue for people convicted because of faulty or outdated science. Three times, he’s asked the Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) to take another look at his case in this context, to determine whether he should get a new trial.
