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Many Texas counties not complying with SCOTUS' Rothgery ruling

Many Texas counties have yet to update their indigent defense plans to accommodate the US Supreme Court's Rothgery decision this spring, according to presentations at a statewide conference of the Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense this week. If local officials aren't careful, such omissions could lead to confessions and other evidence being thrown out of court, the group was told.The main problem occurs when an indigent defendant requests an attorney but then is somehow able to make bond - a particularly common occurrence on misdemeanor cases and penny ante felonies where bond amounts are low. Defendants in custody, for the most part, have counsel appointed promptly, but not always those who bail out.Before Rothgery, Texas law did not require appointment of counsel until a defendant was acutally indicted, which could be weeks or months after the initial arrest...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on October 24, 2008 (boomark / email).