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Director Hired for Texas Office of Capital Writs

By Steve Hall

"Chief hired for state public defense office," is the title of Lise Olsen's report in today's Houston Chronicle.Texas has hired an experienced California attorney to run its first-ever public defense office for death row appeals known as state writs of habeas corpus ? considered a death row defendant's best opportunity to raise final arguments about mistakes, unheard innocence claims or misconduct.Brad D. Levenson, now a deputy federal public defender based in Los Angeles, will get a $1 million annual budget and small team of team of lawyers to handle a dozen or more new death cases each year across the Lone Star State.The office was created by the Texas Legislature after a series of scandals generated by ill-prepared and mostly poorly-paid death row defense lawyers assigned to handle writs of habeas corpus across Texas...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on June 22, 2010 (boomark / email).