BAR TO STUDY REPORT ON INDIGENT DEFENSE;
DOCUMENT SAYS TEXAS LEGAL SYSTEM IN "CRISIS"

FORT WORTH -- After five years of study and over the complaints of the
state's judges, the State Bar of Texas will consider a report Friday that
condemns the state's indigent defense system.

The State Bar's board will decide at a meeting in Laredo whether it will
adopt the report, which calls indigent legal services a "national
embarrassment," or whether it will receive but not endorse it.

Judges have complained about the report's comments that the current system
"appears to provide a lower standard of justice for the state's poor" and
about its title, which says the system is in a "crisis."

The report suggests that some judges pressure defense attorneys to plead
cases to ease backlogged courts and that the low pay for court-appointed
attorneys attracts inexperienced lawyers.

There is also concern that endorsing the report would provide ammunition
against Gov. George W. Bush's presidential campaign. Bush vetoed an
indigent defense bill almost two years ago.

The report's authors are Tarrant County Magistrate Judge Allan Butcher and
Michael Moore, a political science professor and an assistant vice
president of academic affairs at the University of Texas in Arlington.

"The judges are shameless in trying to tame this down," said Vincent
Perini, a member of the committee that approved report. "What we all ought
to be doing is putting our shoulders to the wheel" and fixing the system.

Justice Marilyn Aboussie, chief justice of the 3rd Court of Appeals in
Austin and outgoing chairwoman of the State Bar's judicial section, said
the report contains some strong language she wouldn't use.

"There are so many factors to it. It is hard to boil it down to three for
four words like `crisis.' It is not a word I use," Aboussie said.

Texas' ad hoc indigent defense system allows each judge to decide how
attorneys will be appointed to represent poor defendants.

The State Bar's standing committee on Legal Services to the Poor in
Criminal Matters conducted several statewide surveys and interviewed nearly
3,000 judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys from 1995 to 1997.

At its April meeting, the bar board unanimously adopted the survey on which
the committee's report is based. The board also agreed to conduct a
symposium in December about indigent defense to discuss legislative changes.

Most of the concern is over the paper Butcher and Moore wrote. It has been
revised several times to get the board's approval and to ease judicial
concerns.

Butcher said the reaction has been disappointing, adding that they are "not
welcoming us with open arms and kissing us on the cheek."

David Keltner, a Fort Worth attorney and immediate past chairman of the
bar's board, confirmed that he expects the bar to receive and not adopt the
report, partially because of its editorial comments.

Keltner said the bar routinely receives and does not adopt committee
reports. He also said that the bar may adopt the report as its own in the
future, and that he will recommend that Moore and Butcher do some
additional work.

"No one can look at this report and be satisfied that the system is working
the way we intended it to work," Keltner said. "There are problems we've
identified and we can revamp the system to take care of them."

Paddy Burwell, a member of the Texas Board of Pardon and Paroles and a
member of the indigent defense committee, said he would recommend that the
bar board adopt the report because "it is a good, strong piece of work."

"I don't know if the word crisis is an accurate description of the
situation, but if you are indigent and charged with a crime it may be a
crisis to you," he said.