Harris County Pretrial Project (HCCPP)

The Harris County Capital Pretrial Project, partially funded by a two-year Equal Justice Works fellowship, is introducing a new capital defense methodology to local attorneys.  This new method has been very successful in specialized capital trial offices, but has never been used in places like Houston where most attorneys are solo practitioners.  In its first year, the Pretrial Project has had perfect record – all of the cases we have worked on have either been dismissed, pleaded to life sentences or ended in life sentences after trial.  The Pretrial Project has been instrumental in negotiating several pleas in cases which seemed destined to go to trial.   It has also provided pretrial motions and legal research demonstrating that the State's case was legally unsound.  So far, the Pretrial Project has worked with fourteen Harris County attorneys and has assisted in over ten capital  trial cases.  Appointed counsel have observed that any initial skepticism about working with GRACE was quickly dispelled when they saw what new resources and fresh ideas could do for their cases.  The number of death verdicts in Harris County plummeted from a typical right in 2004, to two in 2005.  Incredibly, Harris County went over ten months without a single death verdict – the longest winning streak in recent memory.  The Pretrial Project cannot claim sole credit for these victories, much of which goes to the appointed attorneys and investigators on all of these cases.   Nevertheless, we were proud to play an instrumental role in slowing down the machinery of death. 

None of this would be possible without the generous funding by Equal Justice Works which covers attorney Aimee Solway's salary and individual donations  going towards overhead costs of the Project and the time put in by other staff members.  Aimee's fellowship will run out in the Summer of 2006, but GRACE hopes that additional contributions will enable her to continue providing these valuable services to Harris County attorneys.  In May 2006 former GRACE intern Caroline Meyer will join GRACE's permanent staff through a Reprieve fellowship which will address the role ethnicity plays in capital defense work.  We hope that individual donors and foundations will continue to support this amazing project so that we can finally dethrone Harris County as the capital of capital punishment.