A Wider Death-penalty Lawyer Pool
Bill clears need for experience in representing capital defendants

Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
Critics say the bill is a step backward in efforts to improve the quality of lawyers who defend individuals on trial for their lives.

"The idea that you're going to improve the quality of lawyers by lowering the standards and expanding the pool of lawyers who are able to get appointed is exactly the opposite of what's needed to improve capital defendant representation," said Bill Beardall, director of the Equal Justice Center.

Andrea Marsh, director of the Fair Defense Project of the ACLU of Texas, said death penalty cases are the "wrong kind of case to have someone learning as they go along."

Keel said his bill would for the first time require attorneys to have experience selecting a jury in a death penalty case as part of a prosecution or defense trial team. It also would prohibit the appointment of anyone found to have rendered ineffective assistance during a trial or appeal of a criminal case.
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Let me see if I've got this straight. A prosecutor turned defense lawyer is not qualified to represent a defendant in a capital case even when that former prosecutor has extensive experience in trying death penalty cases? If opening the pool of defense lawyers to experienced former prosecutors represents a "lowering" in standards for such appointments then howcome organizations like the ACLU and the Equal Justice Center exist here in Texas? With all of these idiot prosecutors running around, isn't death row empty?