One Texas attorney, Joe Cannon, was the court-appointed lawyer for three persons executed under Bush. Though Cannon was never sanctioned, he was notorious for sleeping through trials and speeding through cases in order to please judges. Another lawyer, Ronald Mock, has served time in jail for mishandling criminal cases. Mock was one of the lawyers for Gary Graham. The gross inadequacy of the legal defense for persons facing execution is fostered by the Texas judicial system.
Inept defense is only one side of the death penalty in Texas.
The other is corrupt prosecutors. The Tribune report found that many of the 131 executions under Bush were based on testimony from unreliable sources. Twenty-three cases involved the use of jailhouse informants, who often receive compensation for their testimony. This compensation generally comes in the form of special treatment or leniency for their own sentences, but sometimes involves monetary remuneration. At least 29 cases involved the testimony of psychiatrists who, based on a description of the defendant's past, were asked to predict the likelihood that the defendant would commit future crimes.