Texas Refusal To Correct Its Wrongs   

The Texas death penalty has once again taken a step further downward in its spiraling acts of injustice upon its Citizens.

 Most recently, the Texas legislators (lawmakers) failed to correct a faulty statute in Article 11:071 of the 1995 Habeas Act. This was brought to their attention by 3 appellate justices on the 9 member Texas Court of Criminal Appeal; Tom Price, Cheryl Johnson and Charles Holcomb. They affirmed that the court had “Knowingly” been appointing incompetent attorneys to Texas  death row inmates for their State habeas petitions.

 These incompetent attorneys make mistakes so  horrible that the Federal Courts often send the petition back to the Court of Criminal Appeals for review. They in turn cite the “abuse of writ” doctrine, which is the faulty part of Article 11:071 and that in turn, bars the Federal review. The Court of Criminal Appeals use this part of the statute to cover up their own short comings and misapplications because lawmakers assigned them the task to appoint lawyers and pay the lawyers from an allotted $ 7 million dollar fund. So quite naturally they aren’t going to expose themselves, so they simple deny the inmate’s petition and push it onto the Federal Courts, knowing that it will get sent back… and when it does, they cite the inmate for abuse of writ, but it’s actually the lawyers they assigned fault, not the inmate, but due to dirty politics’, it is in essence, the inmate who pays the ultimate price for someone else’s incompetence. The lawyer moves on to the next case … the next paycheck and the inmates’ family becomes a victim of a broken judicial system.

 Law makers scrambled to correct the faulty statute “after” the 3 appellate judges spoke out against it publicly saying that Texas death row inmate Leonard Rojas’ December 4, 2002 execution should have been stopped because he had an incompetent attorney appointed by the Court of Criminal Appeals … and his appointed lawyer had failed him “miserably” . Thus lawmakers created bill #1224 to say that if an appointed lawyer had failed to provide competent defense, the inmate could go back and correct the lawyer’s mistake “without” being cite for abuse of writ. The bill went all the way and passed both the House and Senate, but on the last day of session, the Attorney General, Texas highest Prosecutor informed lawmakers that if they passed bill #1224, it would be opening the door to re-litigate over 250 death row inmates habeas petition’s, which in turn would cost Texas millions and millions of taxpayer dollars. The measure ceased to exist at that point and bill #1224 became a thing of the past that will never come correct the wrongs of a corrupt system.

 Texas had an opportunity to correct its wrong but chose not to do so because of the cost’s it would incur in doing such, but I ask you, what value can you put on a human being life? NONE!!!  For its priceless, but unfortunately in Texas lawmakers and corrupt politicians, as well as malicious prosecutors see a death row inmate’s life as an expendable commodity in the course of  blatant revenge and judicial chaos. Hopefully, this system will one day recognize the vast injustices within its system and correct them … until then, we inmates remain hopeful that we live to see such a day.

Peace – Farley Matchett

The U.S. Supreme Court reverses Wiggins  

 On June 26, 2003, the United States Supreme Court ruled in the case of a Maryland death row inmate by the name of Kevin Wiggins, that the performance of his court appointed defense attorney did not meet the minimum standards, which are guaranteed by the United States Constitution’s Sixth (6^th) amendment.

 Mr. Wiggins defense attorney failed to present mitigating evidence to the jury about his troubled childhood, which included horrible child abuse, sexual abuse, abandonment and molestation in a foster home.

 When defendants are without financial resources and have to rely upon court appointed lawyers, this very act which happened to Mr. Wiggins, often happens to countless death row inmates…especially in Texas, where lawyers has to decide… investigate the case or investigate mitigating evidence. Most… do neither and use the money towards other aspects of the case. Nine out of every Ten cases here in Texas have overwhelming mitigating evidence that is often left out due to either incompetence on the lawyer’s part, or lack of funds.

 The United States Supreme Court has dismissed both reasons and declared that the failure to thoroughly investigate a defendant’s background is indeed a direct violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Sixth Amendment. That was said clearly by an overwhelming of 7 – 2.

 The Wiggins case only pertains to the punishment phase of a capital murder trial, where only two options exist… life or death sentence.

 This act by America’s highest court is a beginning step, as they acknowledge incompetent attorneys do exist and that they have heard enough to “finally” step forward and say … no more!!! There’s no doubt that incompetent will continue, but Wiggins lowers the bar standard to raise the claim for inmates. Before Wiggins, the bar standard to declare an attorney violation was far too high to achieve.

 Hopefully with the next case from Texas, which deals with an incompetent lawyer (BANKS vs. COCKRELL), which will be ruled on in the Supreme Courts next session, we will attain a broader spectrum an incompetent lawyers. 

With tomorrow, there is always hope.  

Farley C.Matchett