46th Anniversary of Gideon vs. Wainwright to Call for Creation of Independent Public Defense Commission

ALBANY, NY (03/18/2009)(readMedia)--

CAMPAIGN FOR AN INDEPENDENT PUBLIC DEFENSE COMMISSION

JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED

Legislators and advocates gather on 46th Anniversary of GIDEON vs. WAINWRIGHT to call for creation of independent public defense commission to reform state's broken county-based system of public defense

Reform Advocates say forty six years after Supreme court Guaranteed right to counsel in GIDEON V. WAINWRIGHT, it is time for New York to make that right meaningful

Supporters of improving New York's woeful county-based public defense system gathered in Albany today for a "Gideon Day" commemoration with a mixture of hope and anticipation that legislators at long last are poised to reform a system that a report to former Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye called "an on-going crisis."

This day marks 46 years since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark Gideon v. Wainwright decision, enshrining the right of all defendants to an effective defense regardless of their ability to afford a private lawyer. In New York, where upwards of 80 percent of those charged with crimes qualify for public defense services, that constitutional right is illusory at best.

The Kaye Commission described an underfunded and overburdened system, one so uneven across the state that where you are tried could determine if you get a fair trial. Judge Kaye herself described the system as "so poorly designed, so badly fractured between the State and localities, and so overburdened that only a complete overhaul would suffice."

Judge Kaye called for the creation of an Independent Public Defense Commission (IPDC) to carry out a state takeover of the operation and financing of the county-based system, including the promulgation of statewide standards to begin the process of bringing our state public defense system into compliance with the American Bar Association's Ten Principles of a Public Defense Delivery System.

Lawmakers this year appear poised to finally move toward creating the IPDC, along with a measure that would control county spending on the unfunded mandate that has collectively cost counties more than a quarter billion dollars annually for public defense services mandated, but not paid for, by the state.

"Over the many years that I have sponsored this bill, it has gained the sponsorship of 86 members of the Assembly," said Assembly Codes Committee Chairman Joseph R. Lentol (D-Brooklyn). "I think our state is truly ready for a new era when the constitutional right to representation for the accused is extended equally and fairly to all New Yorkers from all walks of life and all parts of our state. This year it is my hope we can help our justice system be a little more just."

Senate Codes Committee Chairman Eric Schneiderman (D-Manhattan, Bronx) said there is a renewed commitment among legislators to finally reform the public defense system.

"Our proposal completely reforms the current system by ensuring that there is adequate oversight and uniform standards throughout the state, while providing adequate support for public defense attorneys," Schneiderman said. "Importantly, it also lifts an unfunded mandate off of the counties by capping their costs and moving us towards state financing."

Assemblyman Darryl Towns (D-Brooklyn) and Sen. Ruth Hassell-Thompson (D-Bronx, Westchester) - the chair and secretary respectively of the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus - shared that optimism in an op-ed that appeared Monday in the Albany Times Union.

"This could be the year that New York finally moves to reform our county-based system of public defense services for defendants who cannot afford a private lawyer," Towns and Hassell-Thompson wrote. "We shouldn't have to wait another 46 years before justice so long delayed, is no longer denied."

"For the first time in decades, we finally have state leaders seriously discussing how to reform our broken public defense system," said Jonathan Gradess, who manages the Campaign for an Independent Public Defense Commission in its efforts to support the enactment of the Kaye Commission recommendations. "We can enhance all New Yorkers constitutional rights, and protect local taxpayers from the added burdens of providing a service that should be financed by the state."

Michael Whiteman, a partner in the Albany law firm of Whiteman Osterman & Hanna and a former Counsel to the Governor during the administrations of Nelson Rockefeller and Malcolm Wilson, said the long fight to move New York towards complying with professional and constitutional standards is at a critical juncture.

"Judge Kaye has shown us the path to make our state's self-professed commitment to equal rights a reality. Now is the time for lawmakers and the Governor to act decisively to move the State along that path," said Whiteman, who heads the Committee for an Independent Public Defense Commission. The Committee's members include the past presidents of the New York State Bar Association as well as current President Bernice K. Leber and numerous other prominent citizens.

The leaders of the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus recently wrote to Governor Paterson and the leaders of the Assembly and Senate that "Deficient public defense services lead to expensive and discriminatory overuse of prisons and the criminal justice system."

The minority lawmakers said the current system's shortcomings create a "ripple effect of wrongful incarceration, wrongful convictions and wrongful denial of parental rights" that directly impact communities all over the state. Rent goes unpaid, jobs are lost, and in the case of Family Court, where many people are not provided lawyers, children can be forced into foster care at great cost to taxpayers and greater cost to family cohesion.

Even in these tough fiscal times, the IPDC can be created with no impact on the general budget. A proposal currently before the Assembly and Senate would create the IPDC with $3 million drawn from a special state Indigent Legal Services Fund created several years ago to augment county spending and improve public defense services.

While a state takeover of public defense would generate significant administrative savings across the state, some county executives have expressed concern that the state will simply raise standards, and leave local taxpayers to foot the bill for added costs that those standards might require. The Campaign is currently proposing a provision that would cap county spending at an average of local outlays over a three year period ending in 2006 in order to assure local elected officials and taxpayers they will not be forced to spend more for a service the state should be paying for in the first place.

But the greatest cost is paid every day by those who sit in jail solely because of their inability to exercise their constitutional right to an effective defense. Far too many are subjected to an assembly line of injustice, meeting their lawyers for the first time just before hearings where they are pressured into plea bargains that serve the efficiency interests of the criminal justice bureaucracy before ever getting an opportunity to argue for their innocence.

It doesn't have to be that way, and it shouldn't.

"Properly funding and administering public defense, even in these difficult times, is an investment that would return savings both in social and fiscal costs," Judge Kaye said in her final State of the Judiciary Address.