Legal Tactics in Death Penalty Cases

Daniel Slocum Hinerfeld errs in suggesting that defense lawyers should refuse to handle death row appeals (“No Appeal Means No Execution,” Commentary, July 5). His argument is that without representation the appeals cannot be heard and, therefore, the inmates cannot be executed. Since the defense attorney has a responsibility to act in the best interests of his client, he should refuse to represent the client in appeals.

In developing this argument, however, Hinerfeld missed one critical point: There are people on death row who were convicted of crimes they did not commit. An attorney acting in the best interest of such a client would handle an appeal if he felt that such an appeal has a reasonable likelihood of freeing an unjustly sentenced individual. We have just recently seen the release of two men who each spent over a decade in prison for murders that it now appears they did not commit. While these two were not on death row, they were convicted of capital crimes, and there is no reason to assume that similar cases do not exist on death row. If these men had been on death row, people would have been trying to speed their executions, and they may not have survived long enough to witness their exoneration.

Hinerfeld is correct in arguing that when attorneys handle appeals for death row inmates, they could hasten their clients’ executions, but that argument should not prevent those wrongly convicted from seeking exoneration and freedom. Better yet, we should halt all executions until a system of justice is created which will guarantee that only the guilty are convicted.

DAVID HOLLAND

Northridge

* As much as I admire Hinerfeld’s zeal to stop murder by the state in California, I’m afraid that his plan will not work, and for a very disturbing reason. Many lawyers have been sucked into the vortex of hysteria, propaganda and outright dissembling surrounding the death penalty just as completely as the average citizen. I personally witnessed several throwing high-fives after the Harris execution. There would be no short supply, I fear, of those willing to take on a case for the sole purpose of moving their client closer to the death house.

Reason may be the only force that can bring down this barbaric practice, and that seems to be a rare item in California these days.

RON LAMPKIN

Burbank