Indigent defense is broken in Texas-and throughout the United States-and it has been broken for decades. Excessive caseloads and conflicts of interest are two of the most significant problems behind the notoriously poor quality of indigent defense services. Texas can address these problems through at least five changes to the state criminal justice system: reclassifying several offenses so that they do not trigger the right to counsel, increasing diversion to problem-solving courts, expanding the use of victim-offender conferencing, encouraging “open file” discovery systems, and providing vouchers to indigents for the selection of counsel.”
Testimony in Support of HB 4993, with Ammon Blair in House Committee on Homeland Security, Public Safety & Veterans’ Affairs
Chairman Hefner, Vice Chairman Lopez, and distinguished members of the committee, My name is Ammon Blair, and I am a Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. I am honored to appear before you today in strong support of House Bill 4993. I bring 22 years of military experience, including service in the United...