Informants, shoddy counsel, and the death penalty

"Houston has 1.3 per cent of America's population but carries out 10 per cent of its executions," reports the UK Guardian, but many of those executed have something in common: Their lawyer. See the Dec. 2 Guardian profile of Houston defense attorney Jerry Guerinot, who the Guardian calls "Lethal Counsel," who represented a DEA informant in a death penalty case without ever speaking with her law enforcement handler. Her appellate lawyers are claiming incompetent representation, but Guerinot insists his representation was "aggressive." Via CrimProf Blog.