Wrongful Convictions, Needless Destruction of Lives: New York State's Public Defense Crisis Revealed

Justice Fund Posts its Video of Gideon Day 2009

ALBANY, NY (10/01/2009)(readMedia)-- Innocent men working to keep others like them out of prison. Mothers worried about their sons. Lawyers wanting to represent their clients well. Representatives of community groups improving life in their neighborhoods. Legislators acknowledging the distressing stories of the others and calling for change. Meet participants in Gideon Day 2009, sponsored by the Campaign for an Independent Public Defense Commission and captured in a video now posted at www.newyorkjusticefund.org/GD2009.htm.

Clients and attorneys, activists and elected officials, all came together on March 18, 2009 calling in one chorus of many voices for public defense reform. All spoke bluntly about injustice in New York State's courts. They explained how New York's underfunded, balkanized public defense system warrants distrust. And it is distrusted, by clients, their communities, and society at large.

Attorneys described local legislators who think poor people shouldn't receive zealous representation, a disparate rate of public defense spending among counties leading to unequal quality of representation across the state, and a lack of standards and accountability. Clients told of seeing their public defense lawyer only in court – and sometimes not even then – in a complex system that imposes overly harsh consequences on those who lack legal guidance.

The need for public defense reform resounds throughout the video. The disparate racial impact of the broken public defense system is visible, and the pain caused by unfairness is palpable. In the words of every speaker and on the Gideon Day t-shirts that they wear the call is clear – Justice Now!

For more information about New York State's public defense crisis and the need for a statewide Independent Public Defense Commission, visit www.newyorkjusticefund.org. Or, contact the Justice Fund by calling (518-465-0519) or writing. The address is 194 Washington Avenue, Suite 500, Albany, NY 12210.

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