Law firms not nor­mal­ly asso­ci­at­ed with death penal­ty cas­es have pro­vid­ed cru­cial assis­tance to a hand­ful of Texas death row inmates whose cas­es involved issues such as inad­e­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion at tri­al, men­tal retar­da­tion, and inno­cence. While the firms do not spe­cial­ize in crim­i­nal law, they do have what many feel is lack­ing for most cap­i­tal defen­dants — high­ly edu­cat­ed and high­ly moti­vat­ed attor­neys who have the finan­cial resources to ful­ly inves­ti­gate cas­es. For example:

  • Attorneys at Locke, Linddell & Sapp won death row inmate Paul Colella a reprieve short­ly before his sched­uled exe­cu­tion in 1998. An inves­ti­ga­tion con­duct­ed by the firm found that he had woe­ful­ly inad­e­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion dur­ing his ini­tial tri­al and, in light of this rev­e­la­tion, Colella’s sen­tence was reduced to 20 years in prison.
  • Lawyers with Vinson & Elkins con­duct­ed an inves­ti­ga­tion that ulti­mate­ly exon­er­at­ed Ricardo Aldape Guerra for the 1982 mur­der of a Houston police office.
  • Attorneys with Baker Botts uncov­ered evi­dence that gave Pamela Perillo a new lease on life. The fir­m’s inves­ti­ga­tion revealed an inap­pro­pri­ate rela­tion­ship between Perillo’s defense attor­ney and the state’s key wit­ness against her. Based on this rev­e­la­tion, the court resen­tenced Perillo to life in prison.
  • Attorneys with the New York City-based firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison helped to con­vince the U.S. Supreme Court that evi­dence of men­tal retar­da­tion had not been ade­quate­ly con­sid­ered in the cap­i­tal mur­der case of Johnny Paul Penry.

According to Robin Maher of the American Bar Association’s Death Penalty Representation Project, which recruits firms for death penal­ty work, the val­ue of large firm involve­ment in death row cas­es is cru­cial. The ABA has matched 100 law firms with as many clients, includ­ing 20 in Texas, but Maher notes, ​“We’re not com­ing close to fill­ing the need.” There are more than 3,500 peo­ple on death row in the United States, includ­ing 450 in Texas. (Houston Chronicle, September 2, 2003) See DPIC’s report ​“With Justice for Few: The Growing Crisis in Death Penalty Representation.”

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