San Antonio Express-News

March 23, 2002

By Bob Richter

Express-News Austin Bureau

AUSTIN — A task force charged with implementing a new law whose aim is to ensure competent legal representation for poor defendants heard a report Friday that was grim for Texas, but gave good grades to Bexar County district courts.

The Fair Defense Act, passed by the Legislature last year, was prompted by news reports of defendants who were wrongfully convicted or represented by incompetent lawyers, such as one who slept through parts of a murder trial.

Bexar district courts got three A's and two B's in the analysis of the state's counties by Texas Appleseed and the Equal Justice Center, two groups seeking fairer legal defense for the poor.

Bexar's county courts didn't fare as well, with two C's, an A, a B and a D.

The study graded Texas counties on five core issues: prompt access to counsel; fair and neutral methods of picking attorneys; their qualifications; standards of determining indigency; and fees paid for indigent defense.

Bexar County district courts got A's in the first three and B's on the last two. County courts ranked B, A, C, C and D, respectively.

Last December, Bexar County commissioners raised attorney fees for indigent defense to as much as $900 for a lead attorney in a capital case and $15,000 for a death penalty appeal.

The local courts rated well beside other big-city courts.

Dallas County district courts had three D's, a C and an F, and its county courts had an A, a B, a C, a D and an F.

District courts serving Houston had two D's, an A, a B and a C, and the Harris County courts rated two A's, two B's and a D.

Other local counties also did not grade well: The Comal County district court got three D's, a C and a B, and county courts got two C's, two D's and a B. The Guadalupe County district court had four D's and a C, and its county courts had three D's and two C's.

Courts in Tarrant County, containing Fort Worth, got all B's. Travis County, home of Austin, rated three A's and two B's. Both ratings did not separate felony (district) and misdemeanor (county) courts.

The Fair Defense Act, Senate Bill 7, is aimed at improving legal defense in Texas for poor people accused of crimes.

The law required all 254 Texas counties to adopt written procedures for promptly and fairly appointing indigent counsel. The analysis by Appleseed and Equal Justice, both advocacy groups for a fairer legal system, was based on those 6,000 pages of county plans.

Eighty county plans were analyzed, comprising 78 percent of Texas' population.

Bill Beardall of Equal Justice told the task force: "If someone had told me two years ago that I'd be doing this, 'I would have said, 'You're dreaming.'"

He told the group, comprised of lawmakers, lawyers and judges, including Chief Justices Tom Phillips of the Supreme Court and Sharon Keller of the Court of Criminal Appeals, that this is "a historic moment and a historic opportunity" to ensure justice is blind.

"But even with its new funding commitment, Texas remains near the bottom of per capita indigent defense expenditures in the United States," Beardall said, urging the group's legislative members to raise the $20 million currently appropriated for Fair Defense Act grants to counties.

"Chances for new money aren't very good," said Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, noting lawmakers are expecting a $5 billion revenue shortfall when they return in January.