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: Texas Death Penalty Blog

Hire A Lawyer, Escape the Death Penalty?

By "Persian Cowboy"

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ACS is pleased to distribute an Issue Brief by Scott Phillips, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Denver, entitled ?Hire a Lawyer, Escape the Death Penalty?? In this Issue Brief, Professor Phillips describes the results of his study to test the claim made by death penalty opponents that wealthy defendants who hire legal counsel are exempt from capital punishment. His research focuses on Houston, Texas, and surrounding Harris County, which is the county with the largest number of executions in the United States and the largest jurisdiction that uses court-appointed lawyers instead of a public defender to represent defendants who cannot afford an attorney. Professor Phillips compares the outcomes in cases where the defendant hired a lawyer with cases where the defendant had a court-appointed lawyer and finds that, ?[h]iring counsel for the entire case not only eliminates the chance of death, but also dramatically increases the chance of an acquittal...continue to full post

Full post as published by Texas Death Penalty Blog on February 23, 2010 (boomark / email).