The most comprehensive study ever done on the death...

The most comprehensive study ever done on the death penalty in Texas was released by the Texas Defender Service. "A State of Denial: Texas Justice and the Death Penalty" found critical inadequacies in the state's death penalty system, citing such problems as 84 instances of police and prosecutorial misconduct, racial disparities in prosecution and sentencing, questionable psychiatric testimony, and the use of jail house snitches. The report found numerous examples of inadequate defence attorneys, some of whom slept or used drugs and alcohol throughout the trial, and it profiles cases in which an innocent person may have been executed. One of the study's central findings is that the appeals process in Texas is too cursory. The study found that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals routinely denies remedy for inmates whose court-appointed lawyers performed inadequately. In addition, the report found that in 79% of the post-conviction cases studied, the judge never held a hearing on the inmate's constitutional claims and instead relied only on the documents submitted. "The big problem in Texas," said Jim Marcus, one the study's authors, "is that there is not really a stage in the system where we can be confident that these problems will be exposed and addressed."