Yikes! A friend of mine is listed.
She's a great appellate attorney but she has not been feeling well recently.
Lawyers face few penalties
By Lise Olsen - Houston Chronicle
HOUSTON — Texas lawyers repeatedly have missed deadlines for appeals on behalf of more than a dozen death row inmates in the past two years, yet judges continue to assign life-or-death capital cases and pay hundreds of thousands in fees to the same attorneys, a review of records shows.
One San Antonio lawyer failed to file four state appeals on time, according to opinions handed down last year by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. A Fort Worth lawyer missed both state and federal deadlines in at least five recent death row cases, according to court records reviewed by the Houston Chronicle.
A Houston lawyer missed three recent federal deadlines. One of his clients was executed in February after the federal appeal was filed too late.
The failure to file such appeals, called writs of habeas corpus, means death row inmates risk missing their last chance to submit new claims of innocence or other evidence that could alter their conviction — or death sentence.
Yet the lawyers who repeatedly missed those deadlines have faced few consequences.
$750 fine
Suzanne Kramer of San Antonio was removed in October 2008 from three of the four state appeals that she failed to file on time and fined $750 by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. She continues to handle the fourth case over the objections of her death row client.
“I know if this lawyer stays on my case I'll definitely get executed,” the inmate, Juan Castillo, wrote the Chronicle. “She's refused to respond to any of my letters ... she's never come to see me to discuss my case (and) my writ was due Dec. 11, 2006, and she never filed it.”
The CCA allowed Kramer to continue representing Castillo after criticizing her claim that she mailed the appeal on a Saturday to the office of a Bexar County judge. The appeal was never filed with the Bexar County Clerk's office, as required.
“Judges don't file lawsuits. I guess that would go on her credibility as a lawyer,” said Gerry Rickhoff, the district court clerk in Bexar County.
Kramer was out of her office for medical reasons and could not be reached for comment. Bexar County assessors' records were not immediately available to show how much she's earned for recent capital case work.
Machine flaw
Jerome Godinich, the Houston lawyer, was chastised by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in March for using the same excuse — a malfunctioning after-hours filing machine — for missing another deadline for a man still on death row.
But a recent review of the Harris County Auditor's billing records and District Court records show that Godinich remains one of Harris County's busiest appointed criminal attorneys, billing for $713,248, including fees for 21 capital cases. He was appointed to handle 1,638 Harris County cases involving 1,400 defendants from January 2006-March 2009, court records show.
Godinich has not responded to interview requests.
Too busy
Jack V. Strickland Jr., a Fort Worth lawyer, also has repeatedly missed death row deadlines, though judges accepted his explanations and accepted late filings in four out of five recent appeals.
Being too busy on other capital cases was one reason he gave for filing late in two cases in 2008.
Strickland said he'd been hospitalized several months before the appeals were due, then “began a new death penalty trial right after his recuperation period, was in the process of preparing another death penalty writ application which was due mid-September, was preparing for trial in another case, and had presented five lectures and papers in the previous sixty days,” according to a CCA opinion.
In one case, Strickland missed both the state and then the federal appeal deadlines for the same death row inmate, Quintin Jones. Before losing his federal appeal due to a lawyer's lateness, Jones tried to get another attorney. Strickland also asked to be removed, saying “he believed it would be in everyone's best interest.”
A federal judge magistrate left him on the case anyway. Strickland did not return phone calls from the Chronicle.
Strickland earned $428,850.62 in court appointed fees in Tarrant County from 2006-2009 — more than a quarter were bills for appeals he'd filed late, auditor's records show.
