US Supreme Court to hear appeal on Texas Death Row case from 1980
"The paramount importance of adequate defense counsel in capital cases cannot be overstated," the Sessions' [Former FBI Director William Sessions, also a former federal judge in Texas, joined other former judges and a prosecutor to file a 'friend of the court' brief] filing said. "When a criminal defendant is forced to pay with his life for his lawyer's errors, the effectiveness of the criminal justice system as a whole is undermined."