Texas Defender Service

Filing Period

Jan 1, 2010 to Dec 31, 2010

Signed

Nov 10, 2011

Return Version

2010v3.2

Gross Receipts

$2,771,343

Mission

Major Activities

Activity 2

The Trial Project provides pro bono legal services to indigent defendants during their initial case in which they have been charged with a capital crime through: (1) targeted case consulting with court appointed lawyers at the trial level designed to ensure the presentation and preservation of potentially meritorious defenses and claims in state court; and, (2) systematic data collection, which will provide TDS with even more detailed information about cases and clients from the inception of trial proceedings. TDS also provides trial level attorney trainings which identify developing issues in cases, and educate and equip lawyers to better handle these challenges. These defense team trainings and case consultation are services critical to improving the quality of representation in criminal cases in Texas. Essential tasks include maintaining and increasing TDS database of forensic experts, serving as a liaison between trial level defense teams and experts, and providing targeted support to defense teams through case consultation and identification of recurring systemic issues in capital trials.

Activity 3

The Capital Communications Project implements public education strategies to help increase success in capital litigation. The project develops and provides information to the public and interested stakeholders about the facts of these cases. The StandDown Texas Project maintains a website that is constantly updated to allow interested parties to be aware of the most current issues in indigent defense and capital punishment issues and maintains several different listserves to communicate with general audiences and highly issue-specific groups, including mental health criminal justice groups.

Filer

EIN

76-0481649