When state lawmakers overhauled Texas’ indigent defense system last year, they talked about the need for more uniformity and less judicial involvement in the appointment of attorneys for poor people accused of crimes, but Harris County district judges apparently weren’t listening.
The district judges in the state’s largest county opted for what one criminal-defense lawyer describes as “a cafeteria plan.” The plan allows the judges to select from three appointment methods or to use a combination of the approved methods to appoint attorneys to represent indigents in felony cases. Defense attorneys say the new system will maintain the status quo in many of the courts.
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