Law blamed for lack of capital case defenders

From theledger.com (FL):

Defense lawyers willing to take court-appointed first-degree murder cases are harder to find than bigfoot these days.

Just ask Circuit Judge J. Michael Hunter, who can’t find enough lawyers for two new first-degree murder cases with multiple defendants on his docket. After coming up short in Polk County, he called a judge in Hillsborough County to find out whether he knows of any lawyers willing to come to Polk to take on any of the defendants, but he said has not heard back yet.

At fault, defense lawyers say, is a new law that took effect July 1. The law sets pay so low that many lawyers have refused to sign a contract to take on new court-appointed cases, according to A. Russell Smith, president of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “It’s an issue, and it needs to be resolved quickly,” Judge Hunter said.

The law (SB 1088) “creates a compensation structure which is designed to encourage a substandard level of representation, and to force lawyers to plead their clients guilty to the charges quickly and without adequate investigation,” Smith said. “It does so by setting flat fees which are so low that lawyers lose money if they properly investigate a case. This is particularly true in capital cases, where it is often necessary for defense counsel to require more than a year to properly prepare a case for trial.”

“In the past, there were statutory caps, but they were routinely exceeded if the courts found good cause,” Smith said.

The law is intended to save money on court-appointed lawyers’ fees.

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