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S02.E27: Public Defenders

Athena

By Athena
in Last Week Tonight

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Athena

Athena

Pastor, Megareverend, and CEO of Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption John Oliver will return on September 13, 2015. Praise be!

 

Episode Summary:

 

 

The Miranda warning includes the right to a public defender. It doesn’t include the fact that public defenders are highly overworked and grossly underpaid.

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Jediknight

Jediknight

What's up with the 2 week breaks in between episodes??  I get that last week was Labor Day but wha'ts happening this next upcoming weekend that is interupting this show?

Next week is the Emmy Awards, so they'll be there in case they win.  I don't know about the week after though.

 

Finally Oliver got the shot in on Scientology.

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peeayebee

peeayebee

What a depressing segment on Public Defenders. I knew they were overworked, but not to that extent. 

 

In what show did Josh Lucas play a cop?

 

Wow. That story about the Michigan state reps was incredible. And of course, the extent to which the male rep went in order to "gain sympathy." What a disgusting moron.

 

I love seeing Rachel Dratch. She's wonderful. I'm sorry Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption is shutting down, or at least the "miracle wishing," but that was awful for people to send semen. 

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dusang

dusang

(edited)

What a depressing segment on Public Defenders. I knew they were overworked, but not to that extent. 

 

The PD who tattoos his guilty verdicts on his back was featured in a 2013 documentary Gideon's Army.  (The filmmaker was interviewed on TDSwJS.)

 

(Re: semen - people are awful.  Re: semen through USPS -- how the fuck did that happen? ::shudder::)

Edited by dusang
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snowwhyte

snowwhyte

When they had the last update from the church and showed people sending actual seed I turned to my friend and said, "you know it's a matter of time before someone sends semen right?" Someone always has to take it too far which is a shame since they were raising a decent amount of money for doctors without borders.

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The Luvly Junkie

The Luvly Junkie

After watching this episode, I wish Ollie-Scone and company good luck if they win at the Emmys, or at least in the future. 

 

Shame no one discussed about the Queen's never-ending reign and weird hats, which only makes the segment even more justified. 

 

As for the OLoPE, you never specified about sending semen last time. Tut tut, but at least the actual seeds will be sent for a good organization like Doctors Without Borders. And FINALLY, a Scientology joke.

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Delwyn

Delwyn

If I'm not mistaken, they just had two weeks off for his Sydney shows and next week for the Emmys. I'm sure he said back in two weeks, not two more weeks without shows.

I was sorry they didn't include the loss of show mockery target Australia PM Tony Dumb-Dumb.

The final segment including the words "rub this for the seed you seek" and "when someone sends you jizz through the mail, it's time to stop doing what you're doing" was a welcome juvenile laugh after the public defender piece, which was a depressing extension of the Bail report (maybe the groundwork was laid during research for that?) The results of the seed campaign reminded me of the Bugle episode when listeners signed up their email for all the crazy dating sites they could get their hands on. Be careful what suggestions you put out there, John: your audience has the same twisted sense of humour as you and the anonymity to act on it via FedExed semen (just mark "gift" on the declaration form).

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Danny Franks

Danny Franks

So the theme of this show seems to be, 'The structure of American society is completely fucked because there's not enough money to pay for the things it needs to function'. It's pretty terrifying, and yet you still have dangerous, rich goobers in power who want to make sure their rich goober friends don't have to pay taxes.

 

The way the system seems geared specifically to keep the poor in their place is truly an Orwellian nightmare, and yet we all just shrug and accept it. It's so dispiriting to feel like there is this institutionalised, casual exploitation and domination of the poorest and weakest people in society, and it's not long ago been called out as grossly, criminally unfair.

 

I do love John's raccoon impression, I have to say, and I like that it's become something of a running joke. As has the 'a country you think so little about...' bit, which keeps working because they keep tweaking it. This time, I was forced to admit that I didn't know which of those countries was Guatemala, and had to look it up (for those of you who didn't, it's the one on the Pacific coast that borders Mexico).

 

I was ready to begin rolling my eyes when John started talking about the Queen's 'achievement' (well done, you've managed to not die for longer than any other monarch!), so was very pleasantly surprised when he just dismissed her as pointless.

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stillshimpy

stillshimpy

(edited)
The final segment including the words "rub this for the seed you seek" and "when someone sends you jizz through the mail, it's time to stop doing what you're doing" was a welcome juvenile laugh after the public defender piece, which was a depressing extension of the Bail report (maybe the groundwork was laid during research for that?)

 

I really needed the laugh of John refusing to relinquish the giant, carved penis also. 

 

The public defender/court costs piece was a companion to the bail piece, in which it becomes clearer and clearer that -- in particular certain states (and God help me, I live in one of them at present, Missouri) -- are seeking to essentially criminalize poverty, something which -- if it wasn't sickening enough on every single level I can name -- also tends to shake out along racial lines in a way that can't be escaped. 

 

 

 

the structure of American society is completely fucked because there's not enough money to pay for the things it needs to function'. It's pretty terrifying, and yet you still have dangerous, rich goobers in power who want to make sure their rich goober friends don't have to pay taxes.

 

Well, there is actually plenty of money, we just are terrible at allocating it in an efficient fashion, but that doesn't negate your point in anyway.  It's yet another problem with the whole "states get to decide" and enact state law too, because a state like Florida can practically create a modern day Debtor's Prison (Rick Scott needs to have the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Future and FUCK IT, Armageddon show up and blast the tattered thing he calls his soul into something resembling humanity) and there is little to be done about it.  Meanwhile, they get to brag about how the tax structure there is so friendly to retirees, as the state attempts to take it out of the hides of sick, poor and sometimes falsely accused people.  

 

It's the Sunshine State in that deeply ironic sense where the sun shines down on the rolling hills of hell.   It's the same state that wanted to make food stamp recipients take drug tests to prove they were worthy of food.  For freaking real and then had one of the champions of that bill was busted for cocaine possession...and asked for understanding and prayers for his "problem".   I know a lot of good, decent kind-hearted and compassionate people who live in that state, by the way, but the state laws scare the hair nearly clean off my head.  

 

About the clip of the tattooed Public Defender.  I'd been wondering this since the bail segment:  In the first days that Jon Oliver guest hosted The Daily Show, which is the gig that landed him this HBO offer, he was actually visibly nervous.  He could actually be seen shaking a couple of times, because (of course) he was sort of scared to near death, who wouldn't be?  

 

But for anyone who was watching back then, it was actually the interview with the director of Gideon's Army that seemed to make John Oliver hit his stride.  He was so fascinated by the subject matter, he seemed to completely forget to be nervous, and he never looked back from that moment in terms of how well he did in that guest spot.  After that interview, even when shit like the power going out while Aaron Sorkin (not known to be the most understanding and level-headed of people) was the guest and the audience had to hum the theme song at the closing credits, John Oliver handled it like a seasoned pro.  

 

So I've been so heartened to see him exploring the subject matter on Last Week Tonight from so many angles.  I don't know if it is a purposeful "give back" or if he's aware that that was his turning point on TDS, or if the subject matter just appealed to his personal sense of justice so much that he has never forgotten it (and I suspect it is that last one).  It's just been one of the more endearing things to see on LWT, even if it does (and it does) involve the most heartbreaking of subjects.  

Edited by stillshimpy
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OneWhoLurks

OneWhoLurks

The impact was seen immediately on a crowdfunding campaign that Chief Public Defender Derwyn Bunton’s office launched last week to try to offset a projected $1 million drop in revenue.

 

The total amount raised jumped from $7,000 to about $14,500 overnight, with donations rolling in from as far away as Hong Kong and the Netherlands, said spokeswoman Lindsey Hortenstine.

 

 

http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/news/13447559-172/hbo-comedy-host-john-oliver

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Hanahope

Hanahope

state like Florida can practically create a modern day Debtor's Prison

 

Which is followed up by privatizing prisons, which put prisoners to work for 10 cents an hour making products that then get sold for hundreds of dollars, essentially slave labor.    The private prisons usually have contracts with the states requiring that they be provided with a sufficient number of prisoners (i.e., keep making people plead guilty, even if they aren't, and impose long sentence terms on them, even if their crimes are very minor), and former prisoners have so many rights restricted, like they can't vote, and they have a significantly harder time finding jobs, usually leading them back into committing a crime, which will then impose an even longer prison sentence as a 'repeat offender.'

 

Its one huge scam to enslave poor people, especially if those people are not white.

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BrittaBot

BrittaBot

(edited)

 

...they are seeking to essentially criminalize poverty, something which -- if it wasn't sickening enough on every single level I can name -- also tends to shake out along racial lines in a way that can't be escaped.

After they showed the clip of the one black guy who had the breathing issues, I turn to my husband and said "they are literally arresting him for being poor." It's a debtors' prison. I thought we outlawed those...

 

My solution to this problem is: hire a ton of recent law school grads who are willing to work for little pay. They would still be eager and knowledgeable and willing to do their job right. Oh wait: a) everyone refuses to hire recent law school grads, especially in the public sector, because you need a minimum of 2 years’ of experience for anything and b) it would still require the state to put SOME money into a public defender system, which it clearly doesn’t want to do.

 

*Full disclosure: I am a recent law school grad.

 

This shit is sad though. I hate the thought of people getting arrested and put in jail for being poor. It’s just so disturbing.

Edited by BrittaBot
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dusang

dusang

After they showed the clip of the one black guy who had the breathing issues, I turn to my husband and said "they are literally arresting him for being poor." It's a debtors' prison. I thought we outlawed those...

 

My solution to this problem is: hire a ton of recent law school grads who are willing to work for little pay. They would still be eager and knowledgeable and willing to do their job right. Oh wait: a) everyone refuses to hire recent law school grads, especially in the public sector, because you need a minimum of 2 years’ of experience for anything and b) it would still require the state to put SOME money into a public defender system, which it clearly doesn’t want to do.

 

*Full disclosure: I am a recent law school grad.

 

This shit is sad though. I hate the thought of people getting arrested and put in jail for being poor. It’s just so disturbing.

 

Wouldn't the majority of "recent law school grads" be burdened with hundreds of thousands of dollars of school loans and be desperate for a well-paying job?

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BrittaBot

BrittaBot

I don't want to get to off-topic. Right, we are, but those $100k+ jobs out of law school don't exist anymore except for a few select people. There are plenty of people who are interested and committed to public interest despite the loans and would "work for less" but can't get into those government jobs. It just seems stupid to me that I know there is people who would do this work and try their hardest to do it well (not me, I'm not really interested in criminal law) but can't break into it. And there are people who really need their help. But we can't connect those two groups.

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possibilities

possibilities

I think the way to connect the groups is through scholarships and loan forgiveness programs. They do this with doctors sometimes-- if you practice for X number of years in an under-served community, you get your education paid for. Access to legal help is not considered essential for life the way access to medical care is, in our culture, but I think it should be!

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AimingforYoko

AimingforYoko

That Todd Courser guy is weapons grade, Homer Simpson level STOOOOPID!

 

I believe I heard Ollie say the show was off for the next two weeks. For which I say: "THE FUCK, OLLIE?!!"

Staying in the midwest, we just had our own Michigan-like scandal here in Minn.

Nothing as convoluted as Courser's tale, they just accused a park ranger of lying. And this is the second time around for the Republicans, the State Senate majority leader resigned after an affair with an aide in 2011.

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Jediknight

Jediknight

The final segment including the words "rub this for the seed you seek" and "when someone sends you jizz through the mail, it's time to stop doing what you're doing" was a welcome juvenile laugh after the public defender piece, which was a depressing extension of the Bail report (maybe the groundwork was laid during research for that?)

Those were great but they couldn't top the "John Oliver is a rat faced bastard" shirt, and especially the 12 Jonny Flynn bobbleheads.

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OneWhoLurks

OneWhoLurks

Guy on reddit claims credit for bobbleheads and explains why he had them: https://www.reddit.com/r/timberwolves/comments/3ky1dd

 

I have season tickets for the Wolves and went to the last preseason game last year and they had a sale of all their old stuff that they hadnt sold or given away in years past such as 2011 team signed balls, tons of Kevin Love signed photos and other things.

 

Well they had alot of Johnny Flynn bobble heads at a dollar each. Well I made a deal with the attendants where they sold me 2 boxes (24 bobbles) for 20 bucks and we went back to watch the game. At that point my friend and I started to joke about what all we could do with like 100 bobble heads and then headed back to the stand and offered like 30-40 more bucks I cant remember for the rest of what they had and they took that offer so I ended up with 9 full boxes and 2 partial ones.

 

 

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Wax Lion

Wax Lion

Which is followed up by privatizing prisons, which put prisoners to work for 10 cents an hour making products that then get sold for hundreds of dollars, essentially slave labor.    The private prisons usually have contracts with the states requiring that they be provided with a sufficient number of prisoners (i.e., keep making people plead guilty, even if they aren't, and impose long sentence terms on them, even if their crimes are very minor), and former prisoners have so many rights restricted, like they can't vote, and they have a significantly harder time finding jobs, usually leading them back into committing a crime, which will then impose an even longer prison sentence as a 'repeat offender.'

 

Its one huge scam to enslave poor people, especially if those people are not white.

 

There's a documentary called Slavery By Another Name that explains that we didn't fully abolish slavery, prisoners were exempted and thus a lot of new, weird laws started showing up on the books in former slavery states, like laws against talking too loud near railroad tracks (IIRC) with governments selling prison labor. Things were pretty blatant at first, forcing the federal government to step in but now enough time has passed to let it happen again.

 

The long running argument for Privatization has been that government is so innately wasteful and there's always a corrupt leader looking to take a little off the top that we should give these services to businesses who will run these services like a business... except by now, at the very least, that means the corruption has moved to a CEO taking a little off the top instead of a mayor or governor (who is just setting for a big campaign donation to give the CEO a chance). There's a lot worse aspects to privatization, like now voters can't do much when corruption is discovered, just vote out the guy who put the contract in place and hope his replacement isn't similarly bought with campaign donations.

 

 

When I first saw the Church of Perpetual Exemption, I though of sending a packet of lettuce seeds but then someone decided to send a 50 pound bag of grass seed. I also thought someone would send semen but that I would never do that. I didn't think of sending them some vanilla pudding until they mentioned that some of the semen they received wasn't real.

 

That said, if "When someone sends you semen in the mail, it's time to stop" became a thing, there would be a list of things that tempt me to put semen in the mail. Unfortunately, I think Sean Hannity would just end up whining about "liberal hate" in response instead of stopping what he's doing.

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Sharpie66

Sharpie66

I have a cousin who became a public defender after finishing law school, but he was so overworked during his tenure that he didn't stay more than a few years before going into the private sector. (He's now also working part-time as a family-court judge--yay, cuz!)

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OneWhoLurks

OneWhoLurks

Orange-Osceola Chief Judge Frederick Lauten announced Wednesday that he will quash more than 21,000 arrest orders for people who failed to appear at collections court, ending the long-standing practice of jailing the defendants when they are located.

 

[...]

 

The issue gained national attention in early August after 61-year-old hospice patient Larry Thompson was arrested on a years-old writ for failing to appear in collections court related to a charge of driving on a suspended license. His story was also recently featured on HBO's "Last Week Tonight With John Oliver."

 

Thompson, who attended the news conference Wednesday, said he's pleased his plight has resonated with people and prompted some change even though he was just speaking for himself.

 

 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-orange-arrests-collections-changes-20150916-story.html

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attica

attica

There's an aphorism that says if you want to know what a society values, look at its budget.We could spend money differently and pay for better public defense, but we don't. So the structure of American society is working exactly the way it's supposed to. Which is depressing indeed.

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fastiller

fastiller

There's an aphorism that says if you want to know what a society values, look at its budget.We could spend money differently and pay for better public defense, but we don't. So the structure of American society is working exactly the way it's supposed to. Which is depressing indeed.

 

A corollary to that aphorism: a budget is a moral document.

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OneWhoLurks

OneWhoLurks

The Florida Supreme Court has suspended a county judge who was captured on video berating and threatening to assault a public defender.

 

In an order released Tuesday, the court ordered Brevard County Judge John C. Murphy suspended without pay until the end of his judicial discipline case, which is still pending. Murphy also must explain why he should not be removed from office. He was given 20 days to respond.

 

 

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/8dac6d6bfa9146b897ced3321b1b022f/judge-suspended-after-accusation-berating-hitting-lawyer#overlay-context=article/21c353ef88d1439282d1c6661b273c01/trucker-hauling-liquid-manure-dies-crash-waste-spills

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OneWhoLurks

OneWhoLurks

The of­fice re­spons­ible for provid­ing free leg­al ser­vices to de­fend­ants in New Or­leans who can’t af­ford law­yers will start turn­ing cli­ents away this week. The city’s pub­lic de­fend­er’s of­fice warned last fall that this day was com­ing. And it came on Jan. 12, when the of­fice an­nounced that it would have to stop tak­ing on in­di­gent cli­ents charged with ser­i­ous felon­ies, par­tic­u­larly those fa­cing life sen­tences. The of­fice no longer has enough staff or re­sources to handle the heavy load of crim­in­al cases com­ing across its desk, a prob­lem largely at­trib­ut­able to a paucity of funds from the state.

 

“Our work­load has now reached un­man­age­able levels, res­ult­ing in a con­sti­tu­tion­al crisis,” said Chief De­fend­er Derwyn Bunton in a Jan. 12 press re­lease. “OPD’s case­loads far ex­ceed na­tion­al case­load stand­ards, and we simply don’t have the ca­pa­city to eth­ic­ally rep­res­ent the most ser­i­ous of­fenses.”

 

This is the of­fice that John Oliv­er spot­lighted on his HBO com­edy news pro­gram last year to help with a Kick­starter cam­paign cre­ated to make up for the of­fice’s budget short­fall. The city found ex­tra funds then to bump up its ori­gin­al ap­pro­pri­ation from $830,000 to $1.5 mil­lion, but that was just enough to avoid a staff fur­lough.

 

[...]

 

Most of the al­tern­at­ives in terms of fund­ing—in-kind ser­vices offered by private firms, phil­an­throp­ic and fed­er­al gov­ern­ment grants, private dona­tions—have been ex­hausted. And iron­ic­ally, the pub­lic de­fend­er’s of­fice re­lies on fees and fines col­lec­ted by courts for about a quarter of it budget. But many of those fees are owed by poor de­fend­ants, who then are jailed when they can’t pay up—a prac­tice that has sub­jec­ted the New Or­leans court sys­tem to a civil-rights law­suit.

 

Ac­cord­ing to the pub­lic de­fend­er’s of­fice, its budget is half the size as the of­fice of the dis­trict at­tor­ney’s, but OPD rep­res­ents nearly 85 per­cent of all de­fend­ants around New Or­leans.

 

[...]

 

The of­fice’s lit­ig­a­tion dir­ect­or, Colin Rein­gold, told NOLA.com that de­fend­ants will either have to find a way to pay for a law­yer, or that the court may try to find at­tor­neys for them. The courts could force the of­fice to con­tin­ue tak­ing cases, which would not fix the prob­lem at all, as staff would still not have enough time to work on cases. That could mean more er­rors and more plea bar­gains, which ups the po­ten­tial of send­ing in­no­cent people in­to already over­stuffed jails.

 

 

http://www.nationaljournal.com/next-america/criminal-justice/new-orleans-poor-criminal-defendants-we-cant-defend-you

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OneWhoLurks

OneWhoLurks

This past January, with more budget cuts looming, Bunton's office did something drastic: It began turning away clients. The ACLU quickly responded with a federal lawsuit against the Orleans Parish defenders and the Louisiana Public Defender Board that oversees them. The suit alleges that rejecting new cases amounts to leaving people languishing in jail without counsel in violation of the Constitution. Late last month, Bunton told the Times-Picayune that his office cannot afford to represent itself in the lawsuit.

 

"The lawsuit itself can't change anything," concedes Brandon Buskey, an attorney for the ACLU. "The political actors in Louisiana have to step up. The lawsuit can put pressure on them. It can point out that the system is unconstitutional. But if the state wants a better system, it has to fix it."

 

In a court filing—and an interview with Mother Jones—Bunton denies that his actions were unconstitutional. "Is it better to violate the constitution by being incompetent and ineffective?" he says. "I think where we would be violating the Constitution and ethics and professional standards would be to continue to take on cases we don't have the resources to handle."

 

[...]

 

Like many of their peers around the nation, the Orleans Parish public defenders are saddled with massive caseloads on a shoestring budget. In 2014, the office's 51 attorneys juggled more than 22,000 cases—a whopping 431 per lawyer—which included nearly 8,000 felonies and nine death penalty cases. And while rejecting clients was seen as a last resort, Orleans is not the only one doing it. Fourteen of the state's 42 judicial districts have cut back on their defender services and six have stopped taking certain cases, according to James Nixon, chair of the Louisiana Public Defender Board.

 

The way the state funds defense for its poor is deeply flawed, criminal justice experts agree. Louisiana is the only state where public defenders rely heavily on income sources that fluctuate significantly. In its 2015-16 fiscal year, Orleans Parish got just 40 percent of its budget from the state—which faces a new shortfall of at least $800 million for the upcoming fiscal year. The rest of the money had to be found locally. Nearly 40 percent of the defenders budget relied on local court fines and fees. But according to a state Supreme Court report, the number of traffic tickets filed in Louisiana courts—already low Post-Katrina—has dropped by 29 percent since 2009. This has translated to a shortfall for public defenders. "What you have is a local funding crisis," Nixon told me.

 

The chief justice of Louisiana Supreme Court noted in a recent annual report to the legislature that numerous defender offices could face insolvency. "We're funding public defenders offices off the backs of folks who can't afford a lawyer," explains Clarke Beljean, a Plaquimines Parish defender who worked at the Orleans Parish office for six years. The Defender Board's 2014 report called the situation "unstable, unreliable, and untenable."

 

[...]

 

A 2009 Department of Justice report noted that, to properly defend 91 percent of the city's indigent defendants—private attorneys working pro-bono would presumably handle the rest—the Orleans office would need an $8.2 million budget and 70 staff attorneys. In real life, Bunton's office is projected to end up with just $5.9 million—$1 million less than it expected. About 30 percent of the shortfall is expected to come from sub-par revenue from fines and fees. Meanwhile, the office has one-third fewer attorneys than the DOJ recommended, and about half as many as the DA's office employs.

 

In a letter to city and state officials last June, Bunton outlined a cost-cutting plan he said would "likely cause serious delays in the courts and potentially constitutional crises" for criminal justice in New Orleans. A month later, his office imposed a hiring freeze. To make ends meet, the defenders office even resorted to crowd-funding. In September, after the comedian John Oliver did a segment about the problem on his HBO show—it raised just over $86,000 to help the office narrow its budget gap. At a November 20 hearing, Bunton asked the courts to stop sending his office new cases. In January, hoping to stave off further hardship, the New Orleans City Council shelled out $200,000 for the defenders. Jo-Ann Wallace, executive director of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, says that Orleans Parish's decision to turn away clients as a last resort is consistent with "their ethical obligation to provide zealous representation."

 

On the state level, the Public Defenders Board is facing cuts that could range from 30 percent to 62 percent, Nixon told me. Under the latter scenario, two judges wrote in an op-ed, the board could "force the complete elimination of juvenile defense services statewide." A final budget is due from the Legislature in July.

 

 

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/03/new-orleans-public-defenders-financial-crisis

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OneWhoLurks

OneWhoLurks

Quote

 

All of the men face violent felony charges, ranging from rape to murder and armed robbery. None of the defendants can afford an attorney. They were all assigned public defenders, but this spring, that office refused the cases. Then, private attorneys were ordered to pick up the cases, pro bono.

“In our city and in this nation, you shouldn’t penalize people for being poor,” Carter said. “If they’re too poor to hire their own attorney, they shouldn’t be victimized and sent to jail indefinitely.”

[...]

In April, Judge Arthur Hunter ruled in the defendants’ favor, finding there is no funding source for the cases. Hunter ordered the men released, but delayed imposing that order while the state filed an appeal. With the case kicked back to Hunter’s courtroom, hearings to identify funding for each of the seven cases could begin as early as next week.

 

Defendants to remain locked up; funds for their defense still uncertain

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OneWhoLurks

OneWhoLurks

Quote

According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Southern Poverty Law Center and two law firms say Louisiana’s public defender system is so chronically underfunded that it effectively denies representation to indigent Louisianans. According to ABC News, the complaint says the system is so underfunded that there’s no lawyer at all for some less serious offenses, and plaintiffs who do see a lawyer must wait months in jail. Plaintiff Michael Carter of Baton Rouge alleges he has been in jail 18 months without a single visit from his attorney, despite facing charges that could get him up to 20 years in prison.

The case was brought by 13 defendants, who would be lead plaintiffs if a class is certified. There could be as many as 20,000 people in such a class, ABC says; the lawsuit says 85 percent of Louisiana’s population qualifies for public defender services. Named defendants include Gov. John Bel Edwards, Chief State Public Defender Jay Dixon and the members of the Louisiana Public Defender Board.

“Our ability to succeed as a state is directly tied to changing the misperception that we don’t care about the poor or the rule of law in Louisiana,” says Mark Cunningham of Louisiana law firm Jones Walker, one of the firms representing the plaintiffs. Cunningham is the immediate past president of the Louisiana State Bar Association. “The first step to making that happen is to begin investing in our public defense system and the courts.”

 

Quote

 

After Orleans Public Defenders started refusing cases, the ACLU of Louisiana sued the state, making claims similar to the ones in the new lawsuit. A federal judge dismissed that last week, saying plaintiffs should take their concerns to the statehouse. But Judge James J. Brady also said that “it is clear that the Louisiana legislature is failing miserably at upholding its obligations,” and that “budget shortages are no excuse to violate the United States Constitution.”

Derwyn Bunton, Orleans Parish Chief District Defender, told the ABA Journal last year that after his office stopped taking cases, judges threatened his attorneys with contempt of court. In another parish, he said, a judge advertised for volunteer attorneys, saying “no experience necessary.” Some lawyers have also been drafted by local judges to represent indigent defendants, even when they have no criminal defense experience and even though the state never intended to pay them, the Marshall Project reported.

Daniel Kolb, senior counsel at plaintiff law firm Davis, Polk and Wardwell, told ABC that similar lawsuits are underway in at least six other states.

 

Class action lawsuit alleges Louisiana public defender funding system denies right to counsel

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