November 30, 2007
Hon. Eliot Spitzer
Governor
State of New York
Executive Chamber
State Capitol Building
Albany NY, 12224
Dear Governor Spitzer:
This state’s commitment to equal justice before the law requires constant attention. That is why we are writing to urge you to reconsider your position in regard to the recommendations of Chief Judge Judith Kaye’s Commission on the Future of Indigent Defense Services to make the constitutional guarantee of the right to an effective defense a reality for all defendants in this state, regardless of their ability to afford a private lawyer.
The Kaye Commission described our current county-based System of public defense services as “an on-going” crisis. It called for a state takeover of public defense services under the direction of an independent Public Defense Commission, including a state assumption of the costs, and the promulgation of statewide standards for training, experience, allowable caseloads and a variety of other factors that would put the system in compliance with American Bar Association guidelines.
Bills have been introduced in both the State Senate and the Assembly – S.4311-A introduced by Senator Dale Volker (R-C-I, Depew) and A.9087-A by Assemblyman Joseph Lentol (D-Brooklyn) – to create the IPDC. We urge you to include funding in your upcoming Executive Budget, starting with a $6million allocation to create the commission and establish the infrastructure necessary to carry out that state takeover.
You have already expressed support for the findings of the Kaye Commission. Now is the time for you to transform that support into concrete steps to carry out the recommendations and improve our public defense services once and for all.
The communities that we represent are the greatest victims of the current woeful state of our county-based public defense services. The call to justice inherent in the Kaye Commission’s findings are self-evident, but that report went on to point out how the state’s imposing of the obligation to provide public defense services on hard-pressed county taxpayers amounts to a massive unfunded mandate totaling more than $260 million last year alone that too many counties fail to meet.
The cost, of course, is measured in so much more than dollars. It is measured in damage to our reputation as a beacon of equal justice, in the waste and inefficiencies of the current system and, most of all, in the wasted lives of those who sit in jail solely because of their inability to mount an effective defense to the charges against them.
Hon. Eliot Spitzer- 2 - November 30, 2007
The crisis in public defense services reaches far beyond the urban centers that we represent.
In Broome County, court-appointed defense lawyers were recently told they would not be paid for their services until after the first of the year because the money has run out. In Franklin County, the public defender reported he was in violation of American Bar Association caseload guidelines as early as February of this year and had to limit taking new clients in order to comply with ethical obligations.
Inadequacy of defense services was also one of the major causes of the plague of wrongful convictions that afflict this State, as well. A recent report by The Innocent Project revealed that New York led the nation during this decade in the number of people exonerated after DNA-based post-conviction investigation established their innocence of the crimes for which they were convicted.
As you know, the New York Civil Liberties Union recently filed a class action lawsuit against the State, claiming that the current state of public defense services was unconstitutional in its failure to meet the most basic requirements of an effective defense. The lawsuit specifically named 20 plaintiffs from five counties – Suffolk, Onandaga, Schuyler, Ontario and Washington – but argued that the problems in those counties mirror those across the State.
We must express our disappointment that the response by your office to the filing of the NYCLU lawsuit was to express “regret” in a written statement that any hope of resolution on this critical issue would have to wait until the litigation has run its course.
For those of us who struggled for years as part of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity’s lawsuit to ensure that New York City school children received their fair share of state education aid, that comment carries an ominous connotation we hope you will reconsider.
The CFE lawsuit took thirteen years to work its way through the courts, during which our school children suffered under the injustice of a short-changed education. Reform of public defense services should not be forced to wait a similar period of time.
Rather, than presenting an obstacle, the lawsuit should provide one more impetus to do what you have already committed to supporting by implementing the recommendations of Judge Kaye’s Commission.
Justice delayed is justice denied. That is more than a slogan – it is a reality that too many of our constituents face every day, and the path to fixing the problem has already been paid out by the Kaye Commission.
It is 44 years since the United States Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling in the case of Gideon v. Wainwright, enshrining the right of all defendants to an effective defense, regardless of ability to pay. It is time to make that promise a reality in New York.
We look forward to meeting with you at your earliest convenience to discuss how we can implement the recommendations of the Kaye Commission.
Sincerely,
Assemblyman Darryl C. Towns
Chairman