The Fort Worth Star-Telegram

 Death row inmates seek competent representation

May. 19, 2002 

 By JOHN MORITZ

AUSTIN, Texas � Attorneys for three Death Row inmates will ask a federal appeals court Monday to force the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to ensure that condemned prisoners are given competent lawyers to contest their death sentences.

The petition was forwarded to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday after a federal judge in Corpus Christi, Texas, refused to consider a lawsuit filed earlier in the day on behalf of inmates Johnny Martinez, Napoleon Beazley and Gary Etheridge, who are scheduled for execution in the next six weeks.

"We are alleging that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has a policy of appointing incompetent counsel to represent people on Death Row and that they are violating constitutional rights to due process of law," said David Dow, a University of Houston law professor who is representing Martinez.

 The Texas Attorney General's Office, which represents state agencies in legal matters, declined to comment on any aspect of the lawsuit.

 "We simply do not comment on matters of pending litigation," said Jane Sheppard, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office.

 U.S. District Judge Hayden Head dismissed the lawsuit, which names the nine judges on the Court of Criminal Appeals along with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, within hours after it was filed on grounds that he had no jurisdiction to hear it.

 Dow said he wants the 5th Circuit court in New Orleans to rule whether Texas' highest criminal court is violating inmates' rights to legal representation. He is also asking the court to set aside the execution dates for the inmates until the matter is resolved.

 The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled 6-3 in January that condemned inmates deserve an appointed lawyer who is qualified, but not necessarily one who performs effectively.

 "There is no constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel on a writ of habeas corpus," Judge Cathy Cochran wrote in the majority opinion.

 But Judge Tom Price wrote in dissent that competent counsel "ought to require more than a human being with a law license and a pulse."

 Walter Long, who is representing Beazley, said that just because a lawyer is qualified in some aspects of criminal law does not mean he or she has the expertise to represent an inmate facing execution adequately.

 "We believe that we are on the right side of the law, and that the court of criminal appeals is not," Long said.

 Martinez is set to die Wednesday for killing a Corpus Christi convenience store clerk.

 Beazley, who was 17 at the time of his crime, is scheduled for execution May 28 for killing a Tyler man during a carjacking. The victim was the father of a federal appeals court judge.

Etheridge is scheduled to die June 27 for fatally stabbing a Brazoria County girl.