About GRACE

The Gulf Region Advocacy Center, or GRACE, is organized for the purpose of supporting and providing quality representation to indigent persons charged with capital crimes in the state courts of Texas and Louisiana.  The Director and several of the Board members are veteran capital trial lawyers who participated in building the Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center (LCAC) in New Orleans, Louisiana. The LCAC has developed an extremely successful method for investigating and presenting capital cases for indigent defendants. This method has been refined through dozens of capital cases in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. No such office or organization has ever existed in Texas. Texas has never had a public defender system. Though the Harris County District Attorney's Office has long maintained specialized units for capital trial and appellate work, never has there been a defender's office devoted exclusively to capital trials of the indigent where public interest lawyers can work together, share skills and materials, benefit from economies of scale, engage in systematic impact litigation and become specialists in indigent capital trials. GRACE is such an office.

GRACE Benefit Dinner a success!

GRACE's 5th annual fundraiser was a success thanks to the generous support of the community. We thank everyone who attended or contributed to the dinner. GRACE would not exist if not for your generous support.

In addition to enjoying speeches given by director Danalynn Recer and the Consul General of Mexico Carlos González, GRACE was honored to receive a plaque from the Mexican Consulate commending GRACE's work done through the Mexican Capital Legal Assistance Program (MCLAP). The plaque says the following:

TEPANTLATOANI

In honor of the 6th Anniversary of the
Gulf Region Advocacy Center

the Consulate General of Mexico
expresses its sincerest gratitude to

Danalynn Recer
and the entire staff of GRACE

for their tireless efforts in protecting
the lives of Mexican nationals

Carlos I. González Magallón
Consul General of Mexico

Houston, Texas                 June, 2008

Click here to view more photos of the evening.

NEWS

GRACE Receives the Torch of Liberty Award

GRACE was recently honored by the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association. It was given at the HCCLA Annual Banquet. Several staff members attended to receive the award. The inscription on the award reads "In Grateful Recognition of Your Effords in the Pursuit of Justice." We are honored to receive the award.

Danalynn Recer Receives National Award

Danalynn was recently awarded the National Legal Aid and Defender Association’s Life in the Balance Achievement Award. This award is given yearly by the NLADA to an attorney or investigator who has shown exceptional dedication to death penalty defense. The Award reads: in recognition of her tireless commitment to ending the death penalty in America, fearlessly laboring both as an attorney and to teach investigators, mitigation specialists, and lawyers the value of thorough mitigation investigation and defense teamwork.  Danalynn has embodied effective advocacy with respect for every client and their unique circumstances, first as a staff attorney at the Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center in New Orleans and then by having the vision and courage to create the non-profit Gulf Region Advocacy Center out of her home in Houston.  Danalynn has been described by her colleagues as “a force of nature” who has raised the quality of capital defense representation and provided a model for cooperative team defense that has saved countless lives.  

Eric Matthews Plea

This year GRACE played an instrumental role in the long and hard-fought battle to save the life of Eric Matthews, a young schizophrenic Louisiana man charged with murdering his wife and young step-son who awaited trial for over eight years despite the fact that he had confessed, fully cooperated with officials, and was willing to plead guilty in exchange for life without parole.  Eric was represented by the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center, our sister office where Danalynn Recer worked prior to founding GRACE, and where she remains of counsel.  Along with LCAC Director Neal Walker and mitigation specialist Melanie Carr (now the Director of A Fighting Chance, or AFC), Danalynn represented Eric for most of those eight years, during which the elected DA of Tangipahoa Parish ignored the wishes of the victims' family, ignored overwhelming evidence of Eric's severe mental illness, ignored Eric's profound remorse and his willingness to accept responsibility for his actions, and pressed for a death penalty that no one impacted by the crime actually wanted.  After extraordinary pre-trial litigation, numerous hearings, and an extensive mitigation investigation conducted by staff from LCAC, AFC and GRACE, the DA finally relented, and Eric entered a plea in exchange for a sentence of life without parole on August 30, 2006.

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