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Rodney Ellis stumping for Harris County public defender office

By Gritsforbreakfast

If state Senator Rodney Ellis gets his way, Harris County will have a public defender office in the near future, reports Lisa Falkenberg at the Houston Chronicle ("An idea whose time has come?" March 12):The time is ripe, Ellis believes, to begin the first real push for a public defender office in Harris County. All that's needed is one judge to support it and county commissioners to fund it. But Ellis has work cut out for him. It shouldn't be such a radical concept. Harris County is the largest urban area in the nation without one. Even in Texas, other large counties such as Dallas, Bexar and El Paso use public defender offices. Dallas' is the oldest. It started in 1983 with eight lawyers. It now has 90. Ellis might get less resistance from defense attorneys than he expects...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on March 13, 2008 (boomark / email).