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Death of Due Process?

Texas Courts Wreak Havoc With Death Penalty Cases

Washington, D.C. -- The highest criminal court in Texas is not only ignoring constitutional violations in cases of individuals facing death penalty convictions, but is affirmatively engaged in denying rights to these individuals, says Stephen Bright, a nationally recognized expert on capital punishment.

“The death penalty conviction process in Texas has all the integrity of a professional wrestling match,” writes Stephen Bright in the July issue of The Champion, the monthly legal journal of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL). “A politically-motivated Texas Court of Criminal Appeals regularly turns a blind eye and a deaf ear to even extreme travesties of justice where court-appointed lawyers have actually fallen asleep during trials or are clearly incompetent and unable to offer proper representation to people facing the death penalty.”

"It has become apparent" Bright writes "that a vote by any judge on the court to reverse a capital case, no matter how egregious the error requiring reversal, carries with it the risk that the judge will be voted out of office in the next election."

Bright says that the absence of fairness and integrity on the part of the Texas courts has resulted in that state's having the "fastest assembly line to the death chamber in the country." Egregious abuses Bright cites in his article include cases where:
  • The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stridently enforced a deadline blocking any hearing in a case where the accused was defended by a lawyer who had previously prosecuted him, had a serious cocaine problem and was conveniently paid by the judge who appointed him almost the identical amount the lawyer owed to the IRS.
  • The court irresponsibly appointed a federal prosecutor to represent a condemned inmate, unaware that the lawyer was an Assistant U.S. Attorney, and thus could not represent a death-sentenced inmate.
  • The criminal appeal court also upheld at least three death sentences in a Houston case in which the lawyer for the defendant slept during the trial.

Lack of serious attention and proper review by the Texas courts in death penalty cases, ironically, has resulted in the Texas courts' playing a major role in denying justice to those whose rights they are constitutionally obligated to protect, including the fundamental right to counsel. Many of those on death row in Texas have never had their case reviewed by a competent lawyer. And the Texas Court of Appeals often refuses to pay for necessary investigative and other expenses to help establish the actual innocence of citizens, forcing the appointed counsel to absorb these costs themselves.

Texas voters -- and politicians-- apparently are getting what they want: Texas will soon carry out its 200th execution since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the resumption of capital punishment in 1976. That is two-and-a-half times the number of executions carried out in Virginia, the state with the second highest numbers.

"What is happening in Texas reveals what can happen when judges can be voted off the bench for an unpopular decision, when those same elected judges control the appointment of counsel, and when legislatures refuse to establish and fund independent indigent defense programs," Bright observes.

Bright, Director of the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta and a member of NACDL’s Board of Directors, maintains that a close examination of the death penalty process in the Lone Star state reveals that "Texas has neither an independent judiciary nor an independent and adequate system for providing representation to poor people accused of crimes."

Stephen Bright's article "Death in Texas" and NACDL's monthly magazine, The Champion are available elsewhere on NACDL's website.

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The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is the preeminent organization advancing the mission of the criminal defense bar to ensure justice and due process for persons accused of crime or wrongdoing. A professional bar association founded in 1958, NACDL’s 12,000-plus direct members in 28 countries – and 90 state, provincial and local affiliate organizations totaling more than 40,000 attorneys – include private criminal defense lawyers, public defenders, military defense counsel, law professors and judges committed to preserving fairness and promoting a rational and humane criminal justice system.



National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL)
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