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Texas lawyer Jerry Guerinot said he no longer represents people accused of capital murder after four decades of posting a perfect record.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