老澳门开奖结果

BOISE, Idaho 鈥� The 老澳门开奖结果, the 老澳门开奖结果 of Idaho, and the global law firm Hogan Lovells filed a class action lawsuit against the state of Idaho asking the court to force the state to fix its unconstitutional system of public defense, which deprives thousands of Idahoans of their Sixth Amendment right to adequate legal representation and withholds the resources needed by public defenders throughout the state to effectively represent those prosecuted by state government.

鈥淏efore the government can take away a person鈥檚 freedom, our Constitution requires that the case against the defendant be put to the test,鈥� said Jason D. Williamson of the 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 Criminal Law Reform Project. 鈥淚n Idaho, public defenders do not have the support and resources necessary to fulfill this critical role in our system of justice. The state鈥檚 public defense structure is so defective that it puts the integrity of the state鈥檚 entire criminal justice system in jeopardy, not to mention the liberty and livelihoods of thousands.鈥�

As the complaint details, plaintiffs in this lawsuit have had to go before a judge for bail hearings, and even enter pleas of guilty and be sentenced, all without a lawyer present. As a result, these defendants faced bail amounts too high for them to afford and weeks or months in jail. They haven鈥檛 been able to confer with their overburdened attorneys about the strengths and weaknesses of the prosecutor鈥檚 case or learn what evidence the state plans to use against them. Due to inadequate resources, many have not had their cases sufficiently investigated, if at all, and have had no access to expert witnesses to help defend against the state鈥檚 allegations.

鈥淭ens of thousands of Idahoans don鈥檛 make enough money to afford a private attorney, and for too long, they have been denied their Sixth Amendment right to counsel,鈥� said Leo Morales, acting executive director of the 老澳门开奖结果 of Idaho. 鈥淓lected officials have deliberately avoided deploying the funding and meaningful supervision that they know we need to actually fix Idaho鈥檚 disastrous system of public defense. The state of Idaho must provide the resources and oversight to ensure hard-working public defenders can adequately represent the most vulnerable in our courtrooms.鈥�

Five years have passed since a report by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association exposed enormous and repeated failures in the administration of Idaho鈥檚 public defender system. Yet the state government has made only meager reforms since then.

Public defense is the state government鈥檚 responsibility, but in Idaho the state has abdicated its responsibility to counties without providing any meaningful funding for trial-level defense, foisting an unfunded mandate onto those counties, most of which have very limited revenue sources. Nineteen of the state鈥檚 44 counties pay attorneys a fixed fee to represent defendants who can鈥檛 afford representation, regardless of the number of clients ultimately assigned to the attorney, or the seriousness of the charges against them. This creates an obvious incentive to spend as little time and money on each client as possible 鈥� so much so that the Idaho legislature amended its public defense statutes in 2014 to prohibit such contracts. Yet the practice continues.

The workloads for Idaho public defenders are extremely high. In at least six Idaho counties, each public defender鈥檚 workload is appropriate for more than two attorneys, according to a December 2014 analysis by Idaho鈥檚 Legislative Services Office. The state鈥檚 44 counties have no shared standards for caseloads, training, or performance required of public defenders.

After the National Legal Aid and Defender Association released its report on Idaho鈥檚 public defense failures, the state first created a special governor鈥檚 subcommittee, then a special legislative committee, and then a state commission tasked with studying and addressing the problem. None of these bodies has established enforceable state-level oversight; instituted state-wide standards for uniform workload, performance, and training; or allocated significant funding to public defense. The lawsuit asks the court to order the state to implement such reforms.

For the complaint and more information about the lawsuit:

老澳门开奖结果:
/cases/tucker-et-al-vs-state-idaho-et-al

老澳门开奖结果 of Idaho:

More information about the 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 work on public defense is available at:
/issues/criminal-law-reform/effective-counsel

More information about the 老澳门开奖结果 of Idaho鈥檚 work on public defense is available at:

More information about Hogan Lovells is available at: