Public Defense

More on the Cost of Providing Effective Assistance of Counsel

Another article, this one from the Seattle Times, about the cost of providing representation to indigent defendants. Again, the focus is on providing court-appointed counsel as cheaply as possible.

The short version is that the state of Washington is having trouble finding attorneys to defend people in capital cases. The first problem, is that they don't offer court-appointed attorneys enough money. Counties are offering between $70 per hour and $160 per hour. While this may seem like a lot of money to some people, it is not much money to a well-trained, experienced lawyer who can make $200 to $300 in her private practice. Of course these attorneys also need to pay for overhead, health insurance and malpractice insurance with that money.

(As a point of comparison, in my last post, I referenced the court-appointed attorneys where I work. These attorneys are being paid between $30 and $40 dollars an hour to defend parents in abuse and neglect cases. This rate was set approximately 30 years ago and hasn't changed since then.)

The second problem is that the state recently set some standards for the amount of experience an attorney must have in order to receive these appointments. This leaves a smaller group of attorneys for the county to convince to take a stressful, time-consuming case for a very small amount of money.

These new standards apparently are the result of concerns over the accuracy of capital convictions and a number of these convictions being reversed on the basis of ineffective assistance of counsel.

The solution to all of this nearly alluded the author of this article, right up until the last paragraph:

If prosecutors decide not to seek the death penalty, Chief Deputy [prosecutor] Costello said, it will be less expensive and easier to get lawyers because they don't need to be death-qualified. When death is removed as an option, counties are free to choose virtually any defense lawyer they wish.

Bingo! Stop pursuing the death penalty! I'll take it a step further: abolish the death penalty for the entire state. That will save the taxpayers the cost of lengthy appeals and paying for competent lawyers. The other, more expensive solution is to pay these capital defense attorneys an adequate amount of money, say market-rate, but this won't happen. I think it's starting to become clear that saving money is the primary aim of indigent defense systems in this country.

Of course, that leads to the following question: Why do these people care about providing competent lawyers only in capital cases? The way that last paragraph of the article is worded, it is as if quality representation doesn't matter for people charged with anything short of a capital offense. What about the guy facing life in prison? Or 10 years? Or even one day in prison that he doesn't deserve?

posted by Public Defense @ 12/12/2005