What Kind Of Constitution-Trampling Country Are We Becoming?
Utah can't find money for the legal defense for poor people convicted of crimes who can't pay for their own -- but somehow found $2 million to study the subject of indigent defense systems. From Fault Lines at Mimesis Law:
The ACLU of Utah and law firm Holland & Hart have filed a class-action lawsuit against the State of Utah, claiming that its public defender system is underfunded, overburdened, inconsistent and generally inadequate. The ACLU claims it is suing Utah for "failing to meet its Sixth Amendment obligations under the U.S. Constitution."
Christina Flores writes at KUTV:
The problem is more pronounced in rural, smaller counties.David VanDyke, a private attorney in Wayne County said he spent one year as the county's public defender. He was paid $7,200 dollars for the entire year. To make a living he had to keep private clients and that meant he could not give all his attention to the indigent defendants he was hired to represent for the county.
The Sixth Amendment:
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
In other constitution trampling, at the border, another American citizen is medically raped as a form of search -- sans probable cause.
if you'd like your Fourth Amendment rights slightly less violated at the airport, you're being asked to pay $85 for the "privilege," via "Pre-Check."
On campus, students find the First Amendment a little too free speech-oriented for their liking.
On a positive note, this is still a far freer country than Iran or North Korea.
You know a lot of these small counties only have a few criminal cases a year with an indigent defendant.
I come from such a county in an adjoining western state.
I feel a lot more sympathy for the tax payers of Utah than I do the attorneys in this case.
Imagine the cost of subsidizing a public defenders office in every county with a full time job for a lawyer to handle two or three minor felony cases a year.
If you think the job doesn't pay enough, don't sign up to be a public defender.
Most counties just pay a private attorney to handle their indigent clients where the constitution requires representation on a case by case basis.
I guess Holland and Hart got locked out of all the big pharmaceutical cases, so they are trolling for payouts wherever they think they can find them.
Isab at June 24, 2016 8:01 AM
True, but I also see the hypocrisy of the ACLUs answer to the problem 'you are spending too much money and time on frivolous lawsuits' by suing.
Joe J at June 24, 2016 8:04 AM
Public defenders should be run out of the prosecutors coffers and cops should be required to do the defenses directed investigations like they do for the prosecutors
lujlp at June 24, 2016 8:29 AM
In my county, at least in the late 1990's when I job shadowed at the courthouse, all criminal defense attorneys in the county were required to take turns representing indigent clients as a public defender in rotation. If the person was convicted or pled guilty they were ordered to pay back the costs of their defense. I don't know if it's still that way or how much was actually ever paid back. It seems like that would create an incentive for the attorneys to encourage taking a plea.
BunnyGirl at June 24, 2016 5:19 PM
"Public defenders should be run out of the prosecutors coffers and cops should be required to do the defenses directed investigations like they do for the prosecutors"
This is a good idea. Give defendants the same resources the state enjoys. Current system just supports the carceral state (fu Chrome carceral is a word don't underline that shit. Racism!) because defendants lack resources, and everyone cops pleas.
policiaculo at June 25, 2016 11:53 PM
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