Results 1 to 3 of 3

Thread: Texas Lawyer Who Lost All Death Penalty Cases Says He's Done

  1. #1
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Location
    Pennsylvania
    Posts
    4,795

    Texas Lawyer Who Lost All Death Penalty Cases Says He's Done

    0-34

    Texas lawyer Jerry Guerinot said he no longer represents people accused of capital murder after four decades of posting a perfect record.

    None of his nearly three dozen capital murder clients was found innocent.

    Some opponents of capital punishment label him the worst lawyer in the United States. Guerinot shrugs off the criticism, which he says comes from taking notorious cases.

    "My theory is if they are the sorriest of the worst or the very worst, I got 'em," Guerinot, 71, said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Somebody's got to defend — 'defend' is the wrong word — represent these people."

    Guerinot has represented gang members, serial killers and sociopaths accused of heinous crimes.

    He works from Houston, in Harris County, which has sent more people to death row than any other U.S. county and all but two states since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. So, Guerinot got a lot of business.

    Too much business to properly represent the accused, according to Jim Marcus, co-director of the Capital Punishment Clinic at the University of Texas.

    He points to 1996, when jurors over a seven-month period convicted people in four separate Guerinot cases. Three of those clients have been executed. Marcus now represents the fourth, Anthony Medina, who he contends in appeals received virtually no defense from Guerinot, including little trial preparation and inadequate questioning of witnesses.

    "It is unthinkable that a defense attorney would try four separate death penalty cases to verdict in the space of seven months," said Marcus.

    Guerinot said he was not the lead attorney on some of those cases, that extensive preparation was made earlier on two of them and that he spent considerable time on Medina's case before trial. He acknowledged the perception of trying to rush cases to get a paycheck, "but that's not what happened."

    Over his career, court records show 21 Guerinot clients received the death penalty. Ten have been executed. Two had their sentences commuted to life when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that those under 18 at the time of the crime could not be executed. One case is awaiting retrial on the punishment. Prosecutors dropped the charges in another case.

    Thirteen other Guerinot clients are serving life sentences, either because a plea agreement or lesser charge was negotiated, jurors couldn't agree unanimously on the death penalty or prosecutors didn't seek it.

    "You never hear about the ones we pleaded down to murder or aggravated robbery or when the jury came back (with a life sentence)," Guerinot said.

    http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/t...cases-41354197

    Here's some of his clients

    Linda Carty

    Duane Edward Buck

    Lorenzo Morris

    Anthony Medina
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  2. #2
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875
    Wouldn't a more accurate way of looking at his success as a criminal lawyer be how many he saved from death row, not how many defendants were found innocent?
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Helen69 View Post
    Wouldn't a more accurate way of looking at his success as a criminal lawyer be how many he saved from death row, not how many defendants were found innocent?
    It's certainly how real capital defense trial/appellate attys look at it. All these attacks on Guerinot are just part of an antiDP public relations campaign and have nothing to do with his ability to represent his clients.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •