Stay the Course for Justice

By DAVID N. DINKINS

The road to equal justice is long and bumpy, but the journey is one we must continue to pursue.

It took the combined political will and skill of our governor, David A. Paterson, to finally achieve the reform of the draconian Rockefeller drug laws after decades of fruitless attempts. But even as we celebrate this achievement, we know it is only a step on that journey.

As a lawyer, I know that a right is only meaningful if it can be exercised effectively. That is why I am adding my voice to those calling on our state leaders to finally reform our broken system of public defense services for those who cannot afford a private attorney by creating an independent public defense commission.

It is 46 years since the United States Supreme Court, in its landmark 1963 Gideon v. Wainwright decision, enshrined the constitutional right to effective counsel for all defendants, regardless of ability to pay for a private lawyer. A recent report to former Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye studied our state’s county-based system and declared it to be “an ongoing crisis.[”]

More than 80 percent of defendants facing criminal charges, as well as those in Family Court proceedings, qualify for public defense services, and the vast majority of them are African-American or Latino. Errol Louis, writing last week in the Daily News, did not exaggerate when he called the current state of public defense a “monstrous miscarriage of justice.”

Even well-intentioned lawyers such as those who work for the Legal Aid Society in New York City must struggle with crushing caseloads and the lack of resources necessary to properly investigate charges against their clients, which hampers their ability to effectively represent them.

That is why Legal Aid─along with the state bar association, civic groups, religious leaders, the state legislature’s minority caucus and so many others─supports creating the independent commission to set statewide standards for public defense that will bring us into compliance with the American Bar Association’s 10 principles of a public defense delivery system.

They know that far too many defendants face an assembly line of injustice where they do not meet their lawyers until just before hearings where they are pressured to accept please that service the efficiency interests of the courts instead of their right to argue for their innocence. While some officials are concerned about the cost of improving public defense services, it is clear the greatest cost is paid every day by countless inmates who sit in prison solely because of their inability to exercise their right to an effective defense.

And Albany lawmakers should know that if they do not act, they may be ordered to do so by a judge presiding over a class-action lawsuit filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union charging the current system is so deficient as to be unconstitutional. As my good friend George Bundy Smith, a former judge on our state’s highest court, recently wrote, “Albany’s decision makers should look at the lawsuit filed against them as an opportunity to do what they already know to be the right thing─honor our state’s commitment to equal justice by creating an independent public defense commission.”

With Gov. Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and State Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith all publicly in support, now is the time to build on their success reforming the Rockefeller drug laws and create the independent public defense commission.

Justice delayed is justice denied. It is incumbent upon those of us committed to equal justice to urge our leaders not to wait any longer before reforming our state’s broken public defense system.

Copyright © 2009 New York Amsterdam News