Texas lawyer who lost all death penalty cases says he's done
Guerinot has represented gang members, serial killers and sociopaths accused of heinous crimes.
Over his career, court records show 21 Guerinot clients received the death penalty.
Thirteen other Guerinot clients are serving life sentences, either because a plea agreement or lesser charge was negotiated, jurors couldn't agree unanimously on the death penalty or prosecutors didn't seek it.
Guerinot says Carty refused to meet him for four months and, even though she is from St. Kitts when it was part of the British Virgin Islands, she never told him she was a citizen of Britain, where the death penalty is outlawed.
Final submissions from lawyers are due Aug. 29 and the judge will make a recommendation to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court.
The U.S. Supreme Court is to hear arguments Oct. 5 regarding testimony from a psychologist called by the defense who said under cross examination that black people were more likely to commit violence.
Kathryn Kase, executive director of the Texas Defender Service, a legal group that represents Buck and other death row prisoners in appeals, said the defense should have tried to stop the testimony because it was offensive and the man on trial was black.
Guerinot believes he got numerous appointments over the years because of his capital case experience, which began in the early 1970s as an assistant prosecutor, and his frequent presence at the courthouse once he went into private practice.