State Campaigns

[History] [Current Efforts] [Studies]

The national leader in sheer number of executions, Texas is one of the most challenging and necessary states in which to advance death penalty reform.  The Justice Project is working to shine a spotlight on the glaring inadequacies in the Texas death penalty system, and particularly on the inadequate system of legal representation for indigent defendants in capital cases. Working with on-the-ground advocates in Texas, we lobby the Texas legislature to advance specific reforms. 

History

The system of legal services for indigent criminal defendants in Texas has been the subject of intense public scrutiny for the past several years.  The stories are alarming:

• A man was imprisoned for five years before appointed counsel verified his consistent claim that he was incarcerated in another county at the time of the offense with which he was charged. 
• Four men with severe mental disabilities awaited their trials in jail, without treatment, for a total of eleven years because appointed counsel did not know how to have them transferred to a mental hospital. 
• Even now, more than three years into a renewed attempt at significant statewide indigent defense reform, poor criminal defendants in Texas are often jailed without access to any representation, coerced into waiving their right to counsel, or afforded counsel under conditions so resource-starved that assistance of counsel is inherently ineffective.

Furthermore, investigative journalists and independent audits have exposed serious problems with the crime labs in Texas.  These crime lab problems –- ranging from loss and contamination of evidence to improper testing and procedures to misreading of test results –- further undermine the reliability of the criminal justice system.

During its 2001 legislative session, the Texas legislature passed indigent defense reform legislation called the Texas Fair Defense Act (FDA).  The passage of this legislation raised awareness among legislators and the public about problems within the Texas criminal justice system; however, the legislation covers only one aspect of the system’s problems –- the quality of representation of defendants –- and studies have shown that the state fails to live up to the mandate of the law.  The failings of the indigent defense system in Texas are documented, and though the FDA provides an excellent framework for discussing further reforms and for measuring progress and change, injustice in the state continues.

In short, Texas continues to operate one of the worst systems of capital defense in the country, garnering national and even international criticism.  Texas has repeatedly been in the international spotlight for resisting calls by foreign governments and human rights groups to stay the executions of foreign nationals on death row in the state.  In the US, the Supreme Court criticized the Texas death penalty system sharply in its highly publicized decision, Banks v. Dretke.  Two reports by the Texas Defender Service and the Equal Justice Center on the state’s capital punishment and indigent defense systems have prompted renewed calls for reform. 

The Justice Project has worked with Texas-based organizations in the areas of forensic oversight, life without parole, and the investigation of potential innocence cases, and we have met with some significant, recent successes in the legislature.  We have worked with the Texas Defender Service, the leading death row litigation organization in the state, on the promotion of several landmark studies, including their comprehensive 2005 study, "Minimizing Risk: A Blueprint for Death Penalty Reform in Texas."  As a result of our efforts and involvement, the reports received significant state and national attention and garnered numerous editorial and other voices calling for reform.  In addition, our communications work in 2004 on the case of Texas death row inmate Delma Banks, Jr. led to numerous calls for rethinking the fairness and accuracy of the death penalty in that state.

Current Efforts in Texas

Texas's indigent defense system is in crisis and at a crossroads. The FDA provides a tremendous opportunity to educate policymakers and the public about necessary improvements to the criminal justice system and can serve as a vehicle for persuading state and local officials to implement long-overdue reforms. However, if the FDA is only applauded as a landmark piece of legislation and is never implemented to produce real change, it will prove to be at best an empty victory and at worst an obstacle to futher reform of Texas's criminal justice system. By working to implement the FDA and make other improvements to the indigent defense system, advocates can improve the fairness and accuracy of the criminal justice system and build a necessary foundation for additional reforms. Currently, The Justice Project is working with our allies in Texas to ensure that real improvements to the Texas criminal justice system are brought to bear.

In addition, Governor Perry established the Criminal Justice Advisory Council in 2005, which is charged with making recommendations to the Governor on any "changes in law necessary to improve the criminal justice system." Currently, The Justice Project is working to coordinate criminal justice reform efforts in Texas, including the collection and analysis of data about the indigent defense system and the application of the death penalty in Texas.  Examples of reforms that could improve the fairness and accuracy of the Texas criminal justice system include:

• Electronic recording of custodial interrogations
• Implementation of more accurate eyewitness line-up protocol
• Enhancing access to post-conviction forensic testing that has the potential to create important new information relevant to the conviction or sentence
• Expanding discovery in capital cases
• Establishing a state-wide capital defender unit
• Developing procedural provisions for the preservation of evidence
• Improving funding for state habeas defense representation

We are also continuing to identify and build support for specific reforms by raising awareness among the general public and policymakers about necessary improvements to the criminal justice system, developing successful models for policy change, and working in partnership with groups of individuals and organizations dedicated to reform and to correcting the systemic flaws and failures that deny justice, and threaten both liberty and life.