Today's Philadelphia Inquirer reports, "Pa. high court orders hearings on death penalty counsel pay." It's written by Joseph A. Slobodzian.
Pennsylvania's Supreme Court today ordered a Philadelphia judge to do fact-finding on a death penalty defense group's claim that Philadelphia's pay-rate for lawyers appointed to represent the poor in capital cases is so low it violates the client's constitutional right to an effective defense.
The joint order by the state's high court appointed Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Benjamin Lerner to conduct the inquest into complaints in a suit filed by the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, a Center City nonprofit.
The order says Lerner should conduct hearings within 90 days on the validity of the lawsuit's claims. The court then gave Lerner an additional 60 days to recommend remedies, including whether they should be system-wide, or on a case-by-case basis.
And:
The center filed the petition with the Supreme Court after twice being rebuffed on technical grounds by Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Administrative Judge D. Webster Keogh.
According to data included in Bookman's original petition, Philadelphia County pays court-appointed death penalty lawyers less than "any remotely comparable jurisdiction in the country."
Even in Pennsylvania, the petition reads, Philadelphia's flat-fee system in death penalty cases is the lowest of 67 counties.
In Philadelphia a lawyer who accepts a death-penalty case that goes to trial gets $2,000 for trial preparation.
After the first day of trial, the court-appointed lawyer gets a daily fee of $200 for less than three hours and $400 a day over three hours.
In other counties, lawyers who accept death penalty appointments are reimbursed at an hourly rate ranging from $50 in Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is, to $125 in Lycoming County.
An earlier Inquirer news report details the filing at the state supreme court.
"Top Pa. Court Orders Hearings on Adequacy of Attorney’s Fees in Phila. Death-Penalty Cases," by Martha Neil at the ABA Journal.
Exercising its extraordinary jurisdictional powers, as it was urged to do in a petition by a nonprofit Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court yesterday appointed a judge to hold hearings on the adequacy of the legal fees paid to court-appointed attorneys in Philadelphia capital murder cases.
Earlier coverage of this indigent defense cost issue in Philadelphia begins at the link.
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