Three times since 2000, the justices * all of whom accept the death penalty * have cited inadequate work by defense lawyers and reversed death sentences. The reversals signaled rising concern on the court that the death penalty is not being applied fairly because some defendants have bad lawyers * as well as a fear that someone might wrongly be executed. Yoshie Furuhashi <<<<<>>>>>
very small % of those charged with capital crimes are able to afford an attorney, they are often defended by court-appointed lawyers/ public defenders who are inexperienced in such matters and/or lack resources, person i know in local pd office told me that such cases are assigned to least/lesser experienced because of assumption that trial will result in conviction, why 'waste' scarce resources, result is that people sentenced to death have generally had poor/limited legal counsel...
above is significant factor in number of death penalty appeals (keep in mind that about 90% of felony cases in u.s. are administrated via plea bargain process rather than adjudicated so no appeal occurs), 1993 supreme court ruling (_herrera v collins*_, texas case) held that claim of innocence based on new evidence is not ground for overturning conviction/re-trial, appeals courts are to consider only 'fairness' of original trial (which until recently, included lawyer periodically sleeping during proceedings, as in calvin burdine's trial in texas) ... michael hoover
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