When will the death row inmate be sent to death row in Texas?
Condemned killers in Texas will get more legal help with their appeals when a state-backed office opens in 2010. The Office of Capital Writs, with an annual budget of about $1 million and a nine-person staff, will be funded by redirecting money already in the state budget. Its attorneys are expected to handle most state appeals. An alliance of the State Bar of Texas, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and public defense advocates endorsed the measure before the 2009 Legislature. State Sen. Rodney Ellis of Houston sponsored the measure creating the office in response to reports about how death row inmates’ lawyers had mismanaged appeals. He said the lack of a public defender to oversee key death row appeals has been an “international embarrassment.” He introduced the bill in 2007. Texas, the nation’s most active capital punishment state, put 18 convicted killers to death last year. “I think that everyone agrees [death row inmates] deserve one fair shot at presenting their issues, wheth
The Associated Press HOUSTON – Condemned killers in Texas will get more legal help with their appeals when a state-backed office opens in 2010. The Office of Capital Writs, with an annual budget of about $1 million and a nine-person staff, will be funded by redirecting money already in the state budget. Its attorneys are expected to handle most state appeals. An alliance of the State Bar of Texas, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and public defense advocates endorsed the measure before the 2009 Legislature. State Sen. Rodney Ellis of Houston sponsored the measure creating the office in response to reports about how death row inmates’ lawyers had mismanaged appeals. He said the lack of a public defender to oversee key death row appeals has been an “international embarrassment.” He introduced the bill in 2007. Texas, the nation’s most active capital punishment state, put 18 convicted killers to death last year. “I think that everyone agrees [death row inmates] deserve one fair shot at
