That's the title of an OpEd by State Senator Rodney Ellis. LINK It appeared in the Sunday edition of the Houston Chronicle.
It has been more than 45 years since the U.S. Supreme Court decided that American citizens who can't afford a lawyer have a Sixth Amendment right to counsel in state court. A unanimous 1963 decision in the Gideon case stated that, “In our adversary system of criminal justice, any person hauled into court, who is too poor to hire a lawyer, cannot be assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided to him.” The decision sought to protect defendants against abuses by government authorities and ensure the fair enforcement of the law, for rich and poor alike.
Earlier this month, the state Senate Criminal Justice Committee discussed the quality of indigent defense in Texas. The hearing was held in anticipation of the 10-year anniversary of the Fair Defense Act (FDA), which established indigent defense standards in Texas and was authored by Sen. Rodney Ellis and then-Rep. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, now a state senator. Witnesses testified that there has been increasing scrutiny of state indigent defense systems around the country, including by the National Right to Counsel Committee, a prominent, bipartisan group that has documented how indigent defense systems nationally are struggling with inadequate funding, poor quality of legal representation, excessive workloads and lack of independence.
Texas has improved its indigent defense system since 2001. The Fair Defense Act provided state funding to subsidize a service that previously had been funded only by counties. The Task Force on Indigent Defense was created to administer these funds, provide oversight, and set policies to improve the system. The FDA set standards for the prompt appointment of counsel, and requires judges to have a “fair, neutral and non-discriminatory” method of appointing counsel to reduce the perception of cronyism by judges mainly appointing lawyers who contributed to their election campaigns.
Since the adoption of the FDA, indigent counsel appointments in Texas have increased by 45 percent, from 324,412 in 2002 to 470,625 in 2009. This may have helped reduce jail costs as more defendants are released on bond or under pre-trial supervision. There are also now 16 public defender offices serving 91 counties regionally or in specific counties. Harris County, the most populous county in the nation without a public defender office, is set to start a public defender office later this year. These offices hire their own lawyers and provide support services, just like district attorney offices do. If run well, public defenders can be cost-effective while providing quality representation. Texas public defender offices specializing in serving mentally ill defendants have reduced guilty dispositions, increased the number of defendants receiving probation, and assisted in getting for defendants services that reduce recidivism.
Progress has been made, but we still face significant challenges in Texas.
And:
Because public defender offices have proven to be cost-effective and more accountable to taxpayers, we should expand their use and get the state to financially support these offices to relieve the counties of increasing funding pressures. Texas should also experiment with removing judges from directly selecting and supervising indigent defense lawyers. Judges don't pick the prosecutor for a trial; nor should they choose the defense lawyer.
Comments