appointed councils has also been called into question in Texas. In Gram’s case, the appointed attorney, Ron Mock, had been disciplined for unprofessional conduct four times. He has never won a murder case (Black 1). Texas has no statewide system of public defenders. It is up to local judges, elected mind you, to appoint lawyers to poor defendants. Going by the record, these appointments tend to be poorly qualified. In one case, the lawyer actually slept through the trial. The judge in this case stated that “the Constitution doesn’t say the lawyer has to be awake.” The Texas legislature voted for a public defenders system, but Bush vetoed the bill (Hunter 1). It is important to realize that these judges responsible for appointing judges are elected. Because they are elected, staying in office requires keeping the public, i.e. the voters, happy. In Texas, and other southern states particularly, the people want to see death penalty convictions. This could lead to judges assigning under qualified representatives to ensure a conviction (Bright 3).Bush has also vetoed other crucial bills regarding the death penalty, including one to ban executions of the mentally handicapped. He recently resided over an execution in which the prisoner was transported from the intensive-care ward directly to the place of execution after attempting suicide (Hunter 1). However, the Supreme court held that the Constitution does not prohibit the execution of the mentally retarded, with a 5-to-4 vote. John Paul Penry’s sentence was set aside because the jury, in his case, was not instructed to take into consideration his retardation (Bright 1).Although much of the previous information does report very approvingly of Bush, there are many positive aspects of the Texan death penalty system. First of all, the harsh system helps to deter crime. A very conclusive report was filed by researcher Isaac Enrlich, who found that based on statist...
