Its lawyers defend more than half of the county's capital cases.

Seven other states let a judge determine the sentence in a capital case.

Many judges, especially in Federal courts, have never heard a capital case before.

"If everything were fair, I think we'd see a lot fewer capital cases over all," he said.

There is no reason to limit the review to capital cases.

It shows a 40 percent success rate in all capital cases from 1978 to 1995.

There have also been an unexpectedly small number of capital cases.

The court has 50 or 60 capital cases pending at any given time, a spokesman said.

The board has not held a public hearing on a capital case since 1992.

Nationally, she says, attorneys put an average of 500 hours into a capital case.