New York State Defenders Association 2013 Law Day Statement

ALBANY, NY (05/01/2013)(readMedia)-- The Executive Director of the New York State Defenders Association (NYSDA) issued the following statement on May 1, 2013.

Fifty-five years ago, May first was designated "Law Day." Annually, proclamations and speeches, editorials and student essays, appear on this date celebrating "the rule of law."

Fifty years ago, on March 18, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its momentous right-to-counsel decision in Gideon v Wainwright. The court recognized that without "the guiding hand of counsel at every step," individuals being prosecuted in courts of law could not receive the fairness due to every person.

Half a century later, despite Gideon's promise of justice and annual May Day celebrations of the rule of law, justice is still not being done when people without the means to hire a lawyer are "haled into court." Instead of the equal justice inherent in "the rule of law," our courts and prisons reflect a legal system that discriminates at every step between those able to afford quality legal representation and those who are cheated out of it.

The rule of law, like freedom itself, is not free. But while recent hard economic times and government retrenchment have hit all aspects of the law, the public defense services required by the state and federal constitutions were underfunded before the Great Recession and continue in an ever-deepening state of crisis. This year, as in every state budget process, shortfalls in the limited amount of state funding provided for public defense services had to be fought. This was reflected in NYSDA's testimony, highlighting Gideon, in a legislative budget hearing back in February. Meanwhile, in counties across the state, officials too often treat public defense services not as the linchpin of their justice systems, but as a derided, unfunded mandate to be avoided.

NYSDA has long called on the State to fully and adequately fund a state public defense system providing quality representation that would be cause for celebration on Law Day and every day. Until that is achieved, we also call on counties to recognize the need to value their public defense providers just as they value the other entities that contribute to the rule of law, and to fund public defense accordingly. And on this fifty-fifth Law Day, we call on the people of New York State to tell their government officials: We Demand Justice. We Value Fairness. Fix New York's Broken Public Defense System Now.