The Times (London)

By BEN MACINTYRE in Washington

A quar­ter of the con­victs on death row in Texas were rep­re­sent­ed by lawyers with records of pro­fes­sion­al mis­con­duct, accord­ing to a report rais­ing fresh doubts about the qual­i­ty of jus­tice in the state gov­erned by George W. Bush, the Republican presidential candidate

The Dallas Morning News report­ed yes­ter­day that a large pro­por­tion of the court-appoint­ed lawyers rep­re­sent­ing the 461 death row inmates had been dis­ci­plined for incom­pe­tence or mis­be­hav­iour by the Texas State Bar Association. ​“About one in four of the con­victs has been defend­ed by lawyers who have been rep­ri­mand­ed, placed on pro­ba­tion, sus­pend­ed or banned from prac­tis­ing law by the State Bar of Texas,” the newspaper reported.

“The infrac­tions that trig­gered bar dis­ci­pline — an extra­or­di­nary step reserved for severe mis­be­hav­iour — includ­ed fail­ing to appear in court, fal­si­fy­ing doc­u­ments, fail­ing to present key wit­ness­es and allow­ing clients to lie.” Some of the lawyers rep­re­sent­ed clients at tri­al, and oth­ers on appeal.

Mr Bush has presided over 144 exe­cu­tions since 1995 when he became Governor of Texas, where 231 peo­ple have been put to death since cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment resumed in 1982 — the high­est tal­ly of any state. The Republican can­di­date has repeat­ed­ly said that he has no doubts what­ev­er about the guilt of any of the peo­ple exe­cut­ed under his gov­er­nor­ship. While some states have full-time pub­lic defend­er sys­tems, in Texas local lawyers are appoint­ed by judges at low rates of pay that vary depend­ing on the loca­tion of the case.

Some of the Texas sys­tem’s defend­ers say that just because a lawyer has been dis­ci­plined does not nec­es­sar­i­ly mean he or she is a bad lawyer. ​“There are many, many, very, very com­pe­tent attor­neys who have had griev­ances and have had dis­ci­pli­nary sanc­tions that in no way impact or reflect upon their abil­i­ty to try a law­suit,” Judge Mike McCormick of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said.

The report ques­tion­ing the qual­i­ty of legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion on death row in Texas comes amid fresh signs of anx­i­ety in the Bush camp. Time mag­a­zine report­ed yes­ter­day that the Republican can­di­date, enraged by whis­pers of dis­loy­al­ty in the ranks, is mak­ing his own ​“tar­get list of all those sup­posed allies who have pub­licly wor­ried or whined every time any­thing went wrong.”

One advis­er was quot­ed as say­ing: ​“When we win, all those peo­ple are going to be at the back of the line for favours and good jobs.”

In anoth­er indi­ca­tion of a rat­tled cam­paign, Mr Bush was report­ed to have con­tact­ed his for­mer rival, John McCain, to ask him to use his influ­ence as head of the Senate com­merce com­mit­tee, to per­suade the oth­er tele­vi­sion net­works to car­ry the debates he pro­posed on NBC and CNN.

Mr McCain was said to have declined the request. Allies of the Arizona sen­a­tor point­ed out that bare­ly sev­en months ago Mr Bush accused Mr McCain of mis­us­ing his Senate post.

After insist­ing that he would take part in only three debates, Mr Bush has since backed down and said he will nego­ti­ate over the for­mat and loca­tion of debates with Al Gore, his Democratic challenger.

With eight weeks until the elec­tion most polls show the two can­di­dates locked in a tight race, although the Newsweek sur­vey yes­ter­day showed Mr Gore hold­ing on to a sub­stan­tial eight-point lead.