From the NACDP:

The Texas Defender Service and the Equal Justice Center released their second report last week on the state's implementation of the Fair Defense Act, passed by the Legislature in 2001. The act was designed to strengthen the state's tarnished criminal justice system by strengthening the requirements for fair and prompt assignment of qualified defense counsel to poor criminal defendants in capital cases.

But according to the report, two years after passing the act, the state still has more work to do to achieve those goals. Among the findings: None of the state's nine administrative judicial regions have "performance standards" to evaluate which attorneys are qualified for death penalty appointments; many counties have yet to ensure that defendants have prompt access to an attorney; and many counties have yet to allot enough money to pay for defense investigators and experts.

Read the whole story here.