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June 14, 2005, 8:35AM VOICE FOR THE CONDEMNEDAttorney wins Supreme victoryJustices order a new trial for activist defender's death row clientBy DALE LEZONCopyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
His work attire consists mostly of jeans and Birkenstocks. His cluttered law office lacks the leather and dark wood paneling of the city's more prestigious firms. No senior partner is nagging him to get a haircut.
But Jim Marcus now has something on his resume that few of his buttoned-down colleagues can boast: a win before the U.S. Supreme Court in a Texas death penalty case. "It was a thrilling experience," Marcus said. "It feels good." Marcus, executive director of Texas Defender Service, worked for nine years on the case of Thomas Miller-El, who was sent to death row for the 1985 robbery-murder of a motel clerk in Irving. Those years of hard work and research bore fruit Monday when the high court overturned the conviction and sent the case back for a new trial in Dallas County. The case also highlights the Defender Service's office on Main Street, where Marcus and a team of others helped write the legal briefs used in the argument. "He is absolutely committed in his bone marrow to this type of work and leaves no stone unturned," said University of Houston law professor and death penalty expert David Dow, who taught Marcus during his first year of law school. "He's brilliant," added Will Harrell, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. "His commitment is humbling. I'd hate to think of a Texas death row without him." Marcus, 40, was more modest, calling the decision a team victory and "a vindication of my client's right to a fair trial and Dallas County citizens' right to sit on a jury." "I felt like it was an important case because the racial discrimination was so serious," he added. Marcus didn't argue before the high court, but he helped write the legal briefs convincing the justices that prosecutors had unfairly excluded blacks from the jury. Miller-El is black; the jury included nine Anglos, an African-American, a Hispanic and an Asian-American. At least a dozen attorneys worked on the case, Marcus said. He said he recruited Seth Waxman, former U.S. Solicitor General, to argue before the justices because Waxman is one of the best Supreme Court advocates in the country. Waxman argued the case in 2004. Marcus' interest in capital cases began more than a decade ago, while he was attending the UH Law Center and learning from Dow, founder of the Texas Innocence Network. After graduating in 1993, Marcus joined the now-defunct Texas Resource Center, a former nonprofit organization that handled appeals. In 1995, he co-founded Texas Defender Service, a nonprofit that provides legal representation for indigent death-penalty defendants and which handled Miller-El's case. In 2001, Texas Lawyer, a publication, named him one of the state's top 40 attorneys under 40 years of age. Texas Monthly last year honored Marcus as a "Super Lawyer." Yet Marcus said he is not tempted by high-paying jobs available to other smart attorneys. He said he prefers representing the poor to make sure they have fair trials. "I feel lucky because I wake up and go to a job every day that's meaningful," Marcus said. "To me, there's no greater need than quality legal service for indigent men and women on death row." And Miller-El, so far, is his "crowning achievement," Dow said. In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court first heard the case and eight of the nine justices found overwhelming evidence of discrimination. It was returned to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals for more review. But when the 5th Circuit upheld the conviction, Marcus petitioned the Supreme Court to review it again. dale.lezon@chron.com
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