March 2008 In the News
NEWSDAY: The New York Civil Liberties Union sued the state yesterday to immediately reform Suffolk County's system for providing defense counsel for the indigent. Suffolk is one of five counties named in the suit, which argues that, statewide, methods of assigning attorneys to poor defendants are unconstitutional because they too often result in systems in which lawyers are overworked and underinformed about their clients. Two years ago, a commission led by the state's chief judge found that the state's fragmented system of publicly paid lawyers did not provide poor defendants their constitutionally guaranteed right to a defense.
Fix the system; 3/19/2008
HOUSTON CHRONICLE: Harris County is the only major metropolitan area in the country without a public defender system to represent indigent defendants. The county should have one, and soon. In the absence of a public defender office, judges appoint lawyers for poor defendants. This leaves the lawyers beholden to the judges. All too often, the jurists' wishes count for more than their commitment to defend their clients to the best of their ability. Although judges are supposed to use an impartial rotating list of available attorneys, in practice the system is easy to manipulate in favor of particular lawyers who might be friends or political contributors. An attorney who displeases a judge can be removed from the appointment list.
ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: State lawmakers and local taxpayers are rightly annoyed about the high cost of defending accused Fulton County Courthouse murderer Brian Nichols. But those frustrations shouldn't be taken out on the state's public defender system, which deserves to be fully funded.State legislators can't turn back the clock on defense spending in the Nichols case — which has reached nearly $2 million. Nor can they dial back to 2003, when there was no uniform public defender program in Georgia.
Create a Harris County public defender; 3/15/2008
HOUSTON CHRONICLE: In Harper Lee's classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the protagonist Atticus Finch embodies what we hope attorneys, our gatekeepers to justice, to be — a stoic figure of immeasurable fairness and integrity who protects the rights of the innocent. Finch summarizes the American ideal of justice this way, ''The one place a man ought to get a square deal is the courtroom." The promise of adequate representation — the promise that our rights as persons are protected and that everyone accused of a crime, rich or poor, stands equal before the law — is at the root of American democratic ideals of liberty and justice.
Nevada court urded to delay indigent defense reforms; 3/14/2008 (Nevada)
MERCURY NEWS: The Nevada Supreme Court will be urged Tuesday to grant exemptions to, delay or simply set aside its new standards aimed at ensuring indigents charged with crimes get adequate legal counsel. Justices are scheduled to hear from District Judge Richard Wagner, who wants an exemption for his district which encompasses Humboldt, Lander and Pershing counties; and from Humboldt County District Attorney Russell Smith and Pershing County District Attorney Jim Shirley, requesting the order be set aside.
Supremes may slap Texas again; 3/13/2008
HOUSTON CHRONICLE: The U.S. Supreme Court seems to regard Texas' criminal justice system as a source of comic relief in recent years. They have regularly taken time to tell us such things as that we can't execute mentally incompetent people, or use racial criteria to determine which felons should be eligible for the death penalty. Monday the high court will again hear arguments regarding how we treat accused criminals in the Lone Star State. This time the focus isn't on death row, but on an earlier stage of the justice system.
An idea whose time has come? 3/12/2008
HOUSTON CHRONICLE: As he pleaded his case to a group of Houston defense lawyers the other night, state Sen. Rodney Ellis knew he wasn't necessarily among friends. "If you're not with me," the Houston senator sternly told members of the Houston Lawyers' Association, "I hope you figure out a way to be quiet." There were doubters. Skeptics. Foes. People understandably worried about how the senator's grand idea would affect their careers. After all, when former Gov. George W. Bush vetoed Ellis' 1999 bill to improve indigent defense in Texas, defense attorneys were among those cheering the loudest.
Indigent defense bill passes House; 3/4/2008
ATLANTA-JOURNAL CONSTITUTION: Counties will share the financial load in some death-penalty cases and will have more influence over the state's public defender system, under legislation that passed the House on Tuesday. "This is a program worth saving," the bill's sponsor, Rep. David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge), said before the 141-21 vote. "To save it, we need to make changes." House Bill 1245 sets a cost-sharing formula with private attorneys for death-penalty cases. The state picks up the first $150,000 of the defense cost, but the county would pay $25,000 of the next $100,000. The state and county split the costs beyond $250,000.
THE TIMES AND DEMOCRAT: A Summerville attorney will be sworn in tonight as head of the First Circuit Public Defender's Office under a new system officials say will bring accountability to the state's indigent defense system. Mark A. Leiendecker, a private attorney, will be sworn in Tuesday as the chief public defender over the First Circuit, which includes Orangeburg, Calhoun and Dorchester counties. "I feel great about it because in the 25 years of my practicing and in clerking for judges, the thing I've gotten the most out of is the criminal defense" cases, Leiendecker said. "I'm excited about the quality of the attorneys up there, they're very skilled. I look forward to working with them."