STUDY: DEFENSE SYSTEM FAILS THE POOR

In some Texas counties, courts appoint lawyers within 48 hours to
defend poor people who are accused of crimes but unable to pay for
their legal defense.

In other counties, it may take up to nine months to get a lawyer
appointed, according to a study released Tuesday by the Texas
Appleseed Fair Defense Project.

In some counties, the accused may get an experienced lawyer familiar
with criminal defense law. In others, court potluck may stick the
accused with lazy, even incompetent lawyers indifferent to their clients.

Such ``wide and inexcusable inconsistencies'' show the need for the
Texas Legislature to reform the way the state meets its constitutional
obligation to ensure that anyone accused of a crime has a lawyer, said
Bill Beardall, the project's legal director. Beardall is a lawyer who
has served as litigation director for Texas Rural Legal Aid.

The Appleseed project issued 46 recommendations to the Texas
Legislature, including creation of a state agency to help the state's
counties improve their systems for providing lawyers for indigent defendants.

Texas Appleseed is a project run primarily by lawyers who want to
ensure that everyone accused of a crime gets a fair hearing. It claims
a diverse legal membership, from lawyers who specialize in criminal
defense to those such as its vice chairman, Allen Van Fleet, of the
big Houston law firm Vinson & Elkins, which does mostly corporate
civil defense work.

The Appleseed study is the latest indictment of Texas' indigent
criminal defense system -- or rather, as the Appleseed report put it,
the lack of any statewide system but a crazy quilt of 254 counties
each going its own way, and even different courts within the same
county taking different approaches.

In September, a State Bar of Texas committee issued a report on ``the
crisis in indigent defense in Texas.'' The bar is sponsoring a two-day
conference starting Thursday on the issue.

Indigent criminal defense in Texas got critical national attention
during the presidential campaign of Gov. George W. Bush, who in 1999
vetoed a bill intended in part to improve the system of courts
appointing lawyers for poor defendants.

The state's Court of Criminal Appeals also has attracted criticism for
rulings that some said excused lazy or incompetent legal
representation for poor defendants.

Beardall said legislators appear receptive to change, and that the
session that begins next month may be a ``once in a generation
opportunity'' to start enacting substantial reform, although it may
take several years to complete.

Texas counties, collectively, spend about $93 million a year on
indigent defense, the study said. The report also said that breaks
down to $4.56 per Texan, among the lowest of all 50 states.

Beardall said he had no estimate of how much it would cost to
implement all of the study's recom-mendations, but that some could
take effect with little or no cost.

The most important changes, he said, include a requirement that those
charged with a crime be assigned a lawyer within 72 hours, that the
lawyers meet minimum standards of training and knowledge, and that
some consistency be applied to how court-appointed lawyers are assigned.

The study focused on 23 counties with about 61 percent of the state's
population, including Travis County, which was praised for the way it
appoints lawyers to represent poor people.

Rob Kepple, general counsel for the Texas District and County
Attorneys Association, said prosecutors aren't likely to get involved
in efforts to reform indigent defense.

But they might object on particular points, he said. For example, he
said, a law that turns a defendant lose after 72 hours if no lawyer is
appointed might not allow judges enough time and could turn loose a
dangerous criminal.