Legislature Urged to Call on Governor to Settle Lawsuit and Ensure Quality Public Defense Representation

ALBANY, NY (02/07/2014)(readMedia)-- "I urge you to call on the Governor to settle Hurrell-Harring in a way that will create a public defense system that brings measurable results to clients," Jonathan E. Gradess, Executive Director of the New York State Defenders Association, told legislators at a joint budget hearing on February 5, 2014.

Referring to the class action lawsuit headed for trial this coming fall, which seeks to permanently order New York State to administer a system of public defense representation that complies with the United States and New York Constitutions, Gradess told the Joint Fiscal Committees at a hearing on the Public Protection Budget that, "the counties of this state cannot afford this obligation, should not have to pay for it, and are not prepared to carry it out in the manner that is required."

"I will not recount in detail the whole, sad history of New York State's continuing failure to fulfill the fifty-year-old promise of Gideon v Wainwright," Gradess said. He added, "We have been over all that before."

Seeking to help legislators "avoid repeating missed opportunities of the recent past," Gradess recounted false starts over the last fifteen years as well as amendments made to the State's statutory scheme for providing public defense services since 2003. Those he said, "drove massive, poorly designed changes at the county level."

Changes made at the county level, Gradess noted, are often driven more by a desire to reduce the unfunded mandate of public defense than to improve representation. Even when the need for quality is recognized, counties simply cannot fix the problem.

To fundamentally improve the representation of clients requires an overhaul of the whole system, Gradess said. He renewed NYSDA's call for a statewide, fully and adequately state-funded public defense system headed by an independent public defense commission. "Your counties are in trouble," he said, "the clients in your counties are in trouble, and nearly a quarter million people in the counties named in the Civil Liberties Union suit are in trouble."

Gradess pointed out the pending Hurrell-Harring lawsuit against the State provides an avenue for reform. He asked legislators to take advantage of this perfect storm: the need for mandate relief, the pending lawsuit, and growing deficiencies in the public defense system. In urging legislators to call on the Governor to engage and settle this suit, he stated, "When all of you work together you get things done."

Both Mr. Gradess' live testimony and his different oral remarks can found at http://nystateassembly.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=903