The county is suing the state because it says it cannot afford to provide defendants with anything more than assembly-line justice. Mississippi is among a handful of states that provide no money for the defense of the indigent in noncapital cases.
The lawsuit, which will go to trial here this month, is in its way a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Gideon v. Wainwright, which held that poor people accused of serious crimes are entitled to legal representation paid for by the government.
The law firm of Arnold and Porter, which represented Gideon 40 years ago, is representing the county. Important issues will be decided in the lawsuit. While Gideon established the right to a lawyer, it didn't set out parameters, such as, "How decent a lawyer does the constitution require? Who should pay for that lawyer? And how much money should be paid?"
Abe Krash is a 75 year old partner at Arnold and Porter. He worked on Gideon's case. And he says the result is incomplete.
"There was a gap between our great hope and what was realized," he said. "It is simply not sufficient to say you're entitled to a lawyer. You have to have a lawyer who is competent and experienced in trying criminal cases. Equally important, the lawyer who is appointed has to have the resources available to adequately defend the case."
"The problem," he continued, "is that in a number of states the representation is treated with indifference."
Prosecutor's don't get all the fuss:
Prosecutors around the nation, however, say that poor defendants generally get passable representation and were not promised more.
"We are looking at a completely different world than Clarence Gideon saw," Joshua Marquis, district attorney in Astoria, Ore., said. "In noncapital cases, indigent defendants get anywhere from an A to a C defense. I think they're entitled to a C-plus level defense."
As outrageous as we find these prosecutors' comments, in Quitman County, defendants don't even get that much justice.
... two lawyers are paid $1,350 a month each to represent every indigent defendant who comes along. In the first nine months of 2002, there were 45 cases involving serious charges; in all of 2001, there were 20; in 2000, 35. The fee is to cover trials, appeals, investigators, experts and every kind of overhead.
Nor are the prosecutors comments as offensive as those of the defense lawyer who represented Ms. Brown.
Mr. Pearson, the lawyer who handled her case, said he did not remember her. But Mr. Pearson, who no longer works for the county, defended his approach. "They got an adequate representation," he said of his clients. "If they want Clarence Darrow, they should hire Clarence Darrow."
