As published in The Tennessean
July 1, 2007
Op/Ed
By BILL REDICK and BRADLEY MacLEAN
As Independence Day approaches, Americans are reminded of their freedom, liberty, constitutional rights and civic responsibilities. Our criminal justice system plays a vital role in protecting these values, ensuring that justice — not power, money or influence — prevails for all.
Our justice system was envisioned by our nation's founders as a stool firm on three legs: the courts, the prosecution and the defense. These "legs" of justice rely on each other, and if any of them is wobbly, unreliable results will occur.
Unfortunately, as a new report on Tennessee prosecution and indigent defense funding reveals, the defense leg is not wobbly, but broken.
The report by The Spangenberg Group, one of the nation's leading experts on state criminal justice systems, is the first comprehensive analysis of indigent defense and prosecution resources in our state. It documents the imbalance of resources between the prosecution and indigent defense functions: In fiscal year 2004-05, the defense function in all indigent cases received less than half what the prosecution received — only $56.4 million compared to $130 million-$139 million.
The gap grows even more significant when we consider extensive services law-enforcement agencies and forensic experts provide to prosecutors but not to indigent defenders. While these cannot be precisely quantified, Spangenberg determined that they effectively double prosecutors' resources.
This disparity creates an uneven playing field that affects the reliability of cases from low-level misdemeanors to death penalty cases throughout the state. Too frequently, all that indigent defense attorneys can do is "meet and plead" their clients. They lack the time or resources to visit crime scenes, interview witnesses, conduct necessary investigations and forensic testing, retain experts, or perform other tasks required for effective defense. The problem has reached crisis proportions in Knox County, where indigent defense attorneys are so overburdened that they have about 53 minutes to spend on each misdemeanor case, 59 minutes per DUI case and 72 minutes per felony. Lack of attention to a misdemeanor case is one thing, but when this extends to capital cases, the potential consequences are far more injurious.
Funding for indigent defense attorneys must be raised to a level that corresponds appropriately to the resources of the prosecution. The state need not supply more indigent defense resources at the expense of the prosecution; the problem is not that the prosecution is overfunded, but that the defense is underfunded.
The right to adequate counsel is a constitutional requirement and necessary for our legal system to function fairly and reliably. Without it, there is an increased risk innocent people will be incarcerated, guilty people may never be prosecuted, and other defendants receive unfairly long sentences. Policymakers, prosecutors, defenders, judges and law enforcement alike should commit to bridging this funding gap to ensure justice for all — not just for those who can afford it. Anything less would be simply un-American.
