CrimLaw

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God Bless our Troops.
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Gideon vs. Wainwright has passed its 40th anniversary. And people are not happy. The push for all indigent criminal defense to be monopolized by public defenders continues.

"In Virginia, for instance, the move to public defender offices in some four dozen jurisdictions has provided a more consistent and arguably superior level of defense."

This is shakey info. It goes back to the article several months back which talked about how public defenders got better results than court appointed attorneys. Shortly after publication it became fairly obvious that the jurisdictions wherein public defenders are located are generally very liberal and would have gotten better results than the other jurisdictions no matter what**. I cannot speak to all the jurisdictions with public defenders but the ones I've seen benefit significantly from populations which greatly distrust police and courts; as well, they also seem to benefit from confused and disorganized prosecution offices.

This is not to say that a competent, realistic, non-ideological public defenders office will not do a good job, even in a conservative jurisdicition. Sadly, with the pitiful amount that Virginia pays court appointed attorneys*** if a public defender system can do it cheaper and provide things such as secretaries, paralegals, and investigators it might be something which should happen. All this said, despite what the article infers, the cost saving argument is the best reason for emplacing these offices.


** I cannot find the article anymore but I remember clearly that when this point was raised the claim was that the results weren't skewed because one, count 'em one, of the jurisdictions with public defenders is a conservative jurisdiction.

*** The article is incorrect about the amounts paid to court appointed attorneys. The amount qouted in the article is the amount in the statute; it is not the amount for which the Legislature has budgeted. For instance, rather than pay $445 for most felonies the courts actually pay $395.