The Defender is not in the habit of saying we told you so, but… we absolutely did.
A new report released by the Texas Center for Justice and Equity (TCJE) in February 2024 reveals Harris Co. court-appointed attorneys are doing less than the bare minimum when it comes to honoring their duty as public defenders in defending individuals charged with capital murder.
Past Defender articles spotlighted the shoddy job of many court-appointed attorneys in their defense of individuals held in the Harris County Jail (HCJ), individuals accused of various offenses. But the TCJE’s report, “Absentee Advocacy: Failures in Harris County’s Capital Representation System,” focuses specifically on the quality, or lack thereof, of legal representation for those accused of capital murder.
Lawyers not visiting clients
The report finds that those individuals aren’t being regularly visited by their court-appointed attorneys. TCJE’s report reviewed jail visitation logs and court filings for jailed people who are granted court-appointed attorneys because they cannot afford their own attorney.
TCJE researchers found that of the 603 people held in the Harris County Jail while charged with capital murder between Jan. 2015 and March 2020, nearly half were visited by their court-appointed attorney less than twice per year. Even more egregious, the report showed that 137 people were visited less than once per year and 51 were never visited.
These “new” findings are no surprise to Tommie Cole, who spent two years in Harris County jail for a crime he didn’t commit before finally being released.
Cole remembered clearly the date he went to jail, July 13, because that was his daughter’s birthday.
“I didn’t see my lawyer until Nov. 9,” said Cole. “I didn’t see my lawyer again until my birthday, March 27.”
Monique Joseph, the holistic services director of Restoring Justice (RJ), a Houston-based non-profit that provides holistic and client-centered representation to marginalized members of our community facing criminal charges, says RJ deals with horror stories like Cole’s constantly.
“We take cases of those who are receiving inadequate legal representation and offer them client-centered, holistic representation, free of charge,” said Joseph.
And though the U.S. Constitution requires that people classified as “indigent,” meaning too poor to afford an attorney, be provided one, in Texas alone, nearly 315,000 people were appointed what activists call “mere shadows of proper representation” last year.
Big money, little work
However, the kicker is RJ found that private attorneys, not bottom-of-the-barrel lawyers, are being appointed at alarming rates and making big money taking these cases, while offering little real representation.
“It speaks to the nature of our system,” said Jay Jenkins, the Harris County project attorney for the TCJE and co-author of the TCJE report. “We arrest so many people that cannot afford their attorney and then provide inadequate representation for them.”
Jenkins echos Joseph’s criticisms of the current system, contending that the problem lies in the county’s decision to appoint all capital cases to private attorneys. Jenkins claims this creates a “pay-to-play” system that “allows for attorneys to donate to judicial election campaigns and subsequently then be appointed to these cases,” regardless of the attorney’s caseload.
“All of our capital cases are going to appointed attorneys, which raise all of these ethical issues,” Jenkins said. “It’s just a total and complete mess.”
Incredibly, 12 people in HJC were convicted after never being visited by their attorney, according to the report, over that five-year stretch. Less than 10% of cases (56 individuals) were visited by an attorney more than once per month.
“Why anyone is surprised at this injustice is the only thing that surprises me about this reality,” said Shaku Zulu Phillips, a local activist. “When they say it’s a justice system, they ain’t lying because it’s seriously just us getting screwed by the system.”
Recommendations
The report makes two recommendations, the first being an overhaul to the Harris County Public Defender’s Office, which doesn’t currently take on capital cases, to create a division specifically tasked with tackling capital cases and offering proper legal representation.
The second recommendation calls for the creation of a Regional Public Defender Office for Capital Cases (RPDO), which already provides capital representation in nearly 200 counties across Texas.
“The woefully inadequate representation afforded to indigent capital defendants in Harris County is clear, and, without a change, the county will continue to be tarnished by its legacy as the epicenter of American capital punishment,” the report read. “By adopting the RPDO model and establishing a Harris County Capital Defender Office, the county can begin to repair that legacy.”
