About Us

The Texas Defender Service is a nonprofit law firm with offices in Houston and Austin. Established in 1995, TDS seeks to establish a fair and just criminal justice system in Texas by advancing reforms that improve the indigent defense system as a whole. Among the reforms we seek is establishing an indigent defense system in Texas that functions effectively and independently of the judiciary.

TDS approaches its goals through the lens of the Texas capital punishment system and strives to improve the quality of representation afforded to those facing a death sentence. TDS has chosen to focus in this area because more than one-third of all U.S. executions have been carried out in Texas. Additionally, because almost everyone facing the death penalty in Texas is poor, the state’s system of capital punishment throws into sharp relief the deficits in the composition of its indigent defense system, including ineffective counsel and limited access to auxiliary defense services.