Category — Michigan

From The Grand Rapids Press:

Michigan is guilty of not providing competent counsel for poor defendants in its criminal courts, according to a recently completed report. A year-long study of the state’s public defense systems outlined myriad shortcomings. What’s missing from the report are comprehensive recommendations and solutions to fix those failings.

The National Legal Aid & Defender Association and the Michigan Bar Association conducted the study at the request of the state Senate. The groups should have made specific recommendations about such things as attorney selection, qualifications, workloads and case management.

Only calling for state money and oversight is not enough. Who should be responsible for that oversight? Where would the money come from?

Last year, Michigan’s 83 counties spent $74 million for public defense services. Only six states spent less.

And because public defender services are left to the counties, Michigan has a hodgepodge system. Some counties have public defender offices, others have court-appointed attorneys, some have low-bid contracts. Some pay by the hour, by the case, or a combination of both. Pay varies from county to county and so does the level of service.

Speed in dispatching cases often takes precedence over due process, according to the study. Defendants often only meet their attorney briefly on the eve of trial and hold “confidential” discussions in courtroom corridors or restrooms. Some appear in district courts without ever having seen an attorney. In Ottawa County, one of the 10 counties studied in the survey, district court arraignment days are referred to as “McJustice Days.”

Defendants have complained of being pushed through the court system and pressured to plead guilty by overworked, underpaid lawyers, or assigned lawyers unqualified to represent them. Michigan has no workload standards or oversight measures that make sure public defense attorneys have the proper experience and training to match the cases they get. That’s left to each county. Some do better than others. Kent County limits attorneys to no more than 40 indigent cases. In Detroit, five part-time public defenders handle 2,400 to 2,800 cases each.

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From the Detroit Free Press:

Scandalously low pay for court-appointed attorneys and a lack of state standards and oversight have made Michigan a McJustice state — with expedience stressed over upholding a fundamental constitutional right.

The criminal justice system works when truth emerges from the adversarial efforts of a competent prosecutor and vigorous defense. It fails miserably when an outgunned and underpaid public defender is effectively encouraged to cut corners.

A just released report requested by the Legislature in 2006, examining public defense in 10 sample counties, should force an overdue fix.

“A Race to the Bottom,” the title of the study conducted by the National Legal Aid & Defender Association and released last week by the State Bar of Michigan, found that defense attorneys routinely lack the time, training, investigators, experts and resources to prepare cases adequately. Others are appointed to cases for which they are not qualified. Many criminal defendants never speak to an attorney.

Fixing the problem will cost money, but very little compared to the $2 billion a year that Michigan spends on prisons. Getting it right at trial time is especially important today, when appeals courts and the Michigan Supreme Court practically rubber-stamp criminal convictions.

The system cannot be fixed by the hodgepodge of poorly funded county programs for indigent defense. Michigan must establish state standards and oversight of its public defense system — and ensure uniform and adequate funding to counties.

From a purely fiscal standpoint, this is a mess almost begging for a class-action lawsuit that could cost the state plenty. But more basically, budget problems cannot be an excuse for curtailing constitutional rights. Louisiana is in no better shape than Michigan, yet legislators in that Katrina-ravaged state last year passed comprehensive reforms on indigent defense that include quadrupled funding.

“When people understand that one of our cherished constitutional rights is in danger, they find a way to come together and fix it,” said David Carroll of the National Legal Aid & Defender Association.

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From the Traverse City Record-Eagle:

Everyone who has ever seen a TV courtroom drama knows that if you are charged with a crime and are too poor to afford a lawyer, the state will appoint one for you.

Yet if you think that means everyone gets “equal justice under law,” you are sadly mistaken — especially if you live in Michigan. A just-released, extensive new study of public defender programs in the state has revealed shocking failures in the system.

“This is a disgrace. Michigan has utterly failed to live up to its constitutional obligations,” said David Carroll, who is director of research for the non-profit National Legal Aid and Defender Association, which did the study for the state Legislature.

The report found that the state, which once prided itself on the modernity and effectiveness of its justice system, is close to being worst in the nation in terms of its public defender services. Michigan spends less per capita to defend people than all but six other states.

The title of their final report pretty effectively captures it all: “A Race to the Bottom: Speed and Savings Over Due Process: A Constitutional Crisis.” Among other horrors, the investigation found:

•In Chippewa County, the district court provides no confidential meeting space where a court-appointed lawyer can meet with his or her clients. Instead, “most attorneys wait in line to bring their clients, one-by-one, into the unisex restroom across from judge’s chambers.” Others settle for whispering in the corridor.

•In Ottawa County, there isn’t even much effort to pretend that an “adversarial contest” exists between prosecutors and defense attorneys. Instead, “indigent defense services has devolved to the point where defense attorneys call the prosecuting attorney and ask him to have law enforcement conduct further investigations rather than conducting independent investigations themselves.”

Ottawa’s system has become such a farce that the day on which arraignments are held is known locally as “McJustice Day.”

•Michigan has utterly failed to follow American Bar Association principles requiring that public defense attorneys have properly experience and training to match the case.

Much of the problem, the study found, is related to the fact that Michigan is one of only six states where all the public defender costs are borne by the individual counties. The association’s study looked intensively at 10 counties, from the most urban to the most rural. (Grand Traverse County was one of these; it was neither the best or most terrible.) “All were inadequate, but some were far worse than others,” Carroll said. He feels strongly that Michigan needs to move to an entirely state-funded public defender system.

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