Campaign for an Independent Public Defense Commission Reaches Milestone

Organizational Endorsements Soar to More Than 150

ALBANY, NY (10/20/2008)(readMedia)--

LEGAL, RELIGIOUS, CIVIC, MINORITY AND ACTIVIST GROUPS FROM ACROSS THE STATE CALL FOR CREATION OF AN INDEPENDENT PUBLIC DEFENSE COMMISSION TO PROVIDE DEFENSE SERVICES FOR THE POOR

STATE TAKEOVER OF PUBLIC DEFENSE WOULD IMPROVE QUALITY OF REPRESENTATION, HONOR PROMISE OF GIDEON v. WAINWRIGHT, AND RELIEVE COUNTIES OF $272 MILLION UNFUNDED MANDATE

Recognizing that the State's public defense system is underfunded and broken, over 150 diverse organizations have endorsed the Campaign for an Independent Public Defense Commission, urging the Governor and Legislature to implement Chief Judge Judith Kaye's call for a state takeover of the current county-based system of public defense services. Coalition members include groups such as the N.A.A.C.P. New York Conference, the Innocence Project, the Interfaith Alliance of New York State, and the Women's Bar Association of the State of New York. For a list of Campaign endorsers see: http://www.newyorkjusticefund.org/members.htm.

The Campaign reached this important milestone at a time when the State's fiscal crisis continues to worsen. Under New York's patchwork public defense system, counties are faced with an unfunded mandate to provide defense services, costing them $272 million in 2007. The current system was described as "an on-going crisis" in a 2006 report to Chief Judge Kaye by the Commission on the Future of Indigent Defense Services.

"The broad array of groups behind this campaign speaks to the importance of public defense reform, especially in these dire fiscal times," said Jonathan Gradess of the Campaign for an Independent Public Defense System. "The current fiscal crisis is putting additional pressure on county resources and it is imperative that the State take simple steps now to improve the system and utilize public dollars more efficiently. This is necessary to ensure that all New Yorkers have equal access to justice."

The Kaye report called for the creation of an Independent Public Defense Commission to develop enforceable statewide standards for defense caseloads and other requirements to ensure clients in New York State receive effective defense services mandated by federal and state constitutions. The Commission also called for state assumption of the costs of public defense to relieve counties from what amounts to a massive unfunded state mandate.

"It has been 45 years since the Supreme Court decided Gideon v. Wainwright establishing poor people's right to counsel, yet New York is failing to provide equal access to justice and the resources to ensure routine, competent representation. It is therefore critical that the Governor and Legislature implement Judge Kaye's recommendations during the upcoming legislative session," said Gradess.

Among the key findings by the Kaye Commission are:

  • There is a disproportionate availability of resources between prosecution and defense, and among the various counties. This extends to support services.
  • The county-based and primarily county-funded public defense system exacerbates those disproportionalities and undercuts a poor person's ability to receive quality representation and, by extension, a fair trial.
  • The current system, with its state-mandated provision of services without commensurate state funding, results in an unfunded state mandate leading many counties to shortchange defense services in the name of budget savings. The uneven availability of resources and the dependence upon county funds additionally serves to undercut the independence of defense services.
  • With the increase in mandated hourly fees to assigned counsel traditionally handling conflict cases (e.g., family court, multiple client, past representation conflicts), some counties replaced assigned counsel systems with lower-cost conflict defender offices, driven by cost savings at the expense of the quality of defense services. Such moves, which have continued since the Kaye report, in some instances added to rather than ameliorated public defense disarray. A recent Supreme Court decision described in an Oct. 9th Cortland Standard article found that Cortland County, in creating a conflict defender position, failed to meet statutory requirements, making the office illegal.
  • Resource shortfalls are most egregious in the failure of overworked, underpaid and sometimes ill-prepared defense counsels' abilities to fully prepare defenses, investigate case histories, interview witnesses, file motions, and independently assess the quality of evidence. With non-citizen clients, failure to explain collateral issues included in a plea arrangement could affect a client's ability to avoid wrongful deportation.
  • Problems are worse in the town and village courts where many judges are not lawyers, and where many clients are denied or not told about their right to counsel.
  • There are no state standards to determine who qualifies for public defense services, or performance standards for attorneys or the public defense systems providing those services.
  • There is also no mechanism to enforce the professional standards that do exist.

The Kaye Commission recommended creation of the office of a permanent Independent Public Defense Commission and a state-funded public defense structure throughout the state. The Commission would be empowered to establish statewide standards and an enforcement mechanism for assessing compliance with those standards, as well as a regimen of data collection to assess the effectiveness of defense services for poor clients and compliance with the standards.

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