Critics say such concerns are well-founded. It is a mistake to assume that we are now seeing just several isolated instances,'' said Nancy Gist, director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance at the Department of Justice in Washington, which recently sponsored a national conference on indigent defense. She pointed to findings in Illinois that 13 death row inmates had been wrongfully convicted and a recent Columbia University study that found widespread problems in the application of the death penalty. System changes In 1995, the Texas Legislature tried to improve the system representation by requiring the state's nine judicial districts to set minimum standards for lawyers appointed to death penalty cases and to post a list of those attorneys. But the standards vary widely from county to county and the lists often are not updated or monitored.
Judges occasionally ignore the lists completely.
And in June, the Court of Criminal Appeals said that was OK, ruling that a defendant had not been harmed even though his attorney was not on the list. Harris County is known for the most stringent qualifications, including requiring a test to show competency. But the local judicial district's list includes several disciplined attorneys. Among them is one lawyer whose license to practice has been suspended twice. The judge who ordered the most recent suspension, in 1995, delayed its activation so the attorney could finish a capital murder case he had been appointed to handle.