Following recent­ly passed leg­is­la­tion, Texas will open an office with nine attor­neys to man­age post-con­vic­tion appeals in death penal­ty cas­es. In the past, appoint­ed attor­neys some­times missed fil­ing dead­lines or filed inad­e­quate briefs, there­by jeop­ar­diz­ing their clients’ cas­es. The Office of Capital Writs will be fund­ed by redi­rect­ing mon­ey already in the state bud­get: $500,000 for­mer­ly used to pay pri­vate attor­neys for appeals and $494,520 from the state’s Fair Defense account. The office will over­see the part of the appeals process known as state habeas cor­pus where con­sti­tu­tion­al issues out­side the tri­al can be raised. This impor­tant phase can address issues such as new evi­dence of inno­cence, pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, and inad­e­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion. Eventually, this office will han­dle most state habeas appeals, which cur­rent­ly num­ber about 10 a year. ​“I think that every­one agrees (death row inmates) deserve one fair shot at pre­sent­ing their issues,” said Andrea Marsh, exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Texas Fair Defense Project. ​“We saw too many cas­es where poor state habeas rep­re­sen­ta­tion forced peo­ple to lose appeals.”

(L. Olsen, ​“State to han­dle cap­i­tal appeals,” San Antonio Express-News, July 26, 2009). See Representation and Recent Legislation.

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