Appellate Practice
Tardy Lawyers Still Get Paid in Texas Capital Appeals Cases
Posted Apr 20, 2009, 12:25 pm CST
By Martha Neil
When a lawyer misses a filing deadline in a capital appeal, he or she risks not only the client's case but the client's life.
Yet Texas lawyers who have repeatedly missed filing deadlines in death-row appeals are not only being paid for their work but allowed to represent inmates in other capital cases, reports the Houston Chronicle.
“I know if this lawyer stays on my case I’ll definitely get executed,” one death row inmate writes in a letter to the newspaper. “She’s refused to respond to any of my letters … she’s never come to see me to discuss my case (and) my writ was due Dec. 11, 2006 and she never filed it.”
For more details about which lawyers reportedly have filed late and the excuses they offered for their tardiness, read the full article in the Chronicle.
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