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« All in the name of peace. Of course. | Main | Althea Gibson »

February 10, 2004

Skip delayed, go straight to denied

Here's the most annoying finding from the report:

In the past 30 years, numerous studies and reports have been conducted on Virginia’s indigent defense system, most pointing out similar problems and calling for similar solutions.

Justice Denied in Virginia
Tuesday, February 10, 2004; Page A22

THE U.S. CONSTITUTION guarantees a lawyer to those accused of crimes -- but in Virginia this guarantee often isn't worth much to defendants without money. This fact has been shamefully true for some time, and for some time the state has shrugged off criticism. Now a new and authoritative report documents in detail the magnitude of the state's failure, including its failure to heed prior warnings. The warnings should not be ignored again.

The central finding of the report, prepared on behalf of the American Bar Association, is that the commonwealth's system for providing lawyers for poor people accused of crimes "is deeply flawed and fails to provide indigent defendants the guarantees of effective assistance of counsel required by federal and state law." Compensation for court-appointed lawyers in Virginia "is the lowest in the nation, thus strongly discouraging counsel from spending more than a few hours" on cases, according to the authors from the Spangenberg Group research firm. The state pays, on average, $245 for a defense -- a pitiful $12 more than it did in 1971. For felonies that can carry a sentence of life in prison, the state will pay no more than $1,096, even if a case goes through a full-blown trial. For those that can carry up to 20 years, it pays a measly $395.

Under these circumstances, lawyers are under tremendous pressure to have their clients plead guilty; otherwise, they soon find themselves losing money. Such low pay "puts lawyers at substantial risk of violating professional rules of conduct when representing indigent defendants" and "substandard practice has become the accepted norm" in these cases. Meanwhile, oversight of court-appointed lawyers is minimal and ineffective, and in those jurisdictions that have public defenders, the offices are overburdened and have too few resources.

Posted by P6 at February 10, 2004 08:59 AM
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