WLOX-TV 13/ABC
11/10/03
Judge
Rules State Won't Pay Bill For Poor Defendants' Lawyers
MISSISSIPPI
STEVEN A. McCALEB
103 ALVERADO DRIVE
LONG BEACH, MISSISSIPPI 39560
PHONE & FAX: (228)-868-8428
I see
this as a chance for attorneys not being forced to defend Mississippian’s,
which need the services of an attorney.
It has
been known that and attorney will make a minimum of $5 thousand a month after
receiving his license to steal from his clients.
"Plaintiffs
had argued at trial that the state was in violation of the U.S. Constitution by
not providing defendants representation. The state maintained that Quitman
County was not seeking relief for poor defendants but relief for its taxpayers."
Since
when does trial lawyers and attorneys care about taxpayer dollars, or any one
that has the funds to pay them.
Lets take
a look at our Harrison County Supervisors, remember when they were caught by The
Sun Herald committing Fraud, Waste, & Abuse on a $ 1 million slush fund of
the taxpayers money.
And the
Harrison County Supervisors hired Attorney Joe Meadows to represent all five
supervisors.
A Quitman County judge ruled Monday that the state of Mississippi will not be required to pay for lawyers for poor criminal defendants.
Quitman County sued the state in 1999 after it was forced to borrow several hundred thousand dollars in the early 1990s to defend two men convicted of killing county resident Carl "Bubba'' Parker, his wife Bobbie Jo, and their two children.
Circuit Judge Ann Lamar, who presided over a May trial of the county's lawsuit, said in her ruling that she would not declare unconstitutional a state law that requires local governments to pay for indigent defense.
A statewide program, which would have placed a public defender in each circuit court district, was first proposed in 1995 but officials estimated it would have cost $11 million and it was not funded.
Lamar ruled she would not direct the state to establish the state-funded system of lawyers to defend poor defendants.
Attorney General Mike Moore hailed the decision.
"It's a big one for us because it would have cost us millions and millions of dollars if we had to have a statewide public defender system,'' Moore said.
At the same time Moore said: "The truth of the matter is that the Legislature should take a look at how we defend folks.''
Moore said the case gave Mississippi "a lot of negative publicity and it was undue.''
"We're not the richest state in America but we do our best to try to make sure that every defendant gets a fair trial,'' Moore said.
Jackson attorney Robert McDuff, who represented the plaintiffs, said Lamar's decision will be appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court.
"We are optimistic that will be successful,'' McDuff said Tuesday. "But whether we win or lose that appeal, everyone recognizes that the system of justice in Mississippi is broken and that a statewide public defender mechanism is going to be necessary to fix it.''
Moore said the plaintiffs did not show a single case where a defendant did not receive a fair trial.
"The county method has proven the best over the years,'' he said. "But the state should continue to study it.''
Plaintiffs had argued at trial that the state was in violation of the U.S. Constitution by not providing defendants representation. The state maintained that Quitman County was not seeking relief for poor defendants but relief for its taxpayers.
In most Mississippi counties, public defenders are private attorneys who are under contract to take on indigent cases part time. The lawyers often have too many clients and are usually paid a flat fee.
Public defender systems are not perfect, proponents argue. The ideal would be for the number of public defenders to equal the number of prosecutors, but that doesn't happen, they say.
The state argued Mississippi law does not require that public defenders be full-time or hire investigators or have assistants. The attorney general's office said Quitman County's system meets the minimum requirements in the law and public defenders do a good job.
Plaintiffs' attorney said the Legislature's failure to fund a program shows why the court needs to act.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
STEVEN A. McCALEB
COMMENTARY
MY OPINION