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The Harris County Indigent Defense Proposal

By Steve Hall

"Senator attacks pace to create defender office," is the title of Chris Moran's report in the Houston Chronicle.The state senator who authored the law allowing Texas counties to establish public defender offices said he is ?embarrassed? Harris County still does not have one nine years later.?The status quo is an inherent conflict of interest,? state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, said Thursday. ?It is sleazy. It is old school.?Judges in Harris County courts appoint lawyers to represent indigent defendants.Ellis and other critics of the system say it compromises defense of the poor because attorneys must advocate before judges on whom they depend for future employment. Ellis said the arrangement is so morally bankrupt that he has approached legal advocacy groups to ask for help reforming Harris County courts...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on June 11, 2010 (boomark / email).