By Claire Hsu
JACKSON, MS – Mississippi’s public defender system has big problems, leading to many being unable to obtain a defense attorney, relegating accused persons to spend additional time in jail awaiting representation, reports NBC News.
According to NBC News, only 32 attorneys work “full-time” as public defenders. They are in charge of representing people in 82 counties in Mississippi.
Andre De Gruy, the state public defender, states there needs to be four times the number of public defenders employed “full-time,” adding, “In most places they have way more cases than they can reasonably handle and then they have no support staff,” said NBC News.
De Gruy has asserted that many public defender departments are employed by the court “part-time,” with many running other legal work, making it hard to handle all the cases.
According to NBC News, five states in the U.S., including Mississippi, do not pay for defense lawyers for people who have been charged with a crime but cannot afford to hire private lawyers.
“I don’t think the problem is ever going to be solved unless we get state general funds to even that out,” said De Gruy, noting in Mississippi, the courts determine and decide on assigning public defenders, writes the Magnolia Tribune.
NBC News reports “85 percent of those charged with felonies can’t afford a lawyer, according to the Macarthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi.”
Cliff Johnson, who leads the Macarthur Justice Center, said he wants Mississippi to enact restrictions on the time the district attorney can keep someone in custody without actual charges, reports NBC News.
“You don’t have a lawyer. You don’t have money to get out on bail. You don’t have anybody fighting for you. And you don’t have judges who are willing to look at the DA and say that I’m not going to hold this guy for six months, a year, a year and a half, while you get your stuff together to go to the grand jury,” states Johnson on NBC News.
The State Public Defender has moved to enact new laws that require public defenders to continue representing those in jail waiting in the “dead zone,” according to NBC News.
The “dead zone” refers to when individuals charged with a crime are kept in jail before indictment and cannot obtain an attorney, writes the Magnolia Tribune.
NBC News and the Magnolia Tribune feature a man named Duane Lake, who was charged with multiple homicides and kept in jail for six years; Lake shares his experiences in the “dead zone,” where he was for two years before trial.
Many critics, according to the Tribune, charge Mississippi does not abide by the 6th Amendment, which guarantees the right to be represented by an attorney, because many who are not able to pay for a private lawyer have to wait an extensive amount of time to get one assigned to them.
David Caroll, from the Sixth Amendment Center, states “… that’s the big glaring thing, there is no structure in Mississippi state government to provide oversight, set standards, and figure out if the counties and municipalities are in fact meeting the Sixth Amendment or not,” reports the Magnolia Tribune.
The Sixth Amendment Center found significant flaws, including that since the court assigns the lawyers, the lawyer will act more cautiously when defending because they don’t want to offend the court, and the low compensation makes attorneys value quantity over quality in covering assignments, details the Magnolia Tribune.
“If you’re being paid the same amount whether you put a lot of effort into the case or as little as possible… there will be lawyers that make a choice to pocket as much money by getting rid of cases as quickly as possible,” said Carroll in the Magnolia Tribune.
The newspaper said a “task force” was established to analyze the public defense structure in Mississippi in 2015. It made suggestions to improve the operation, but the government has not responded with much movement, reports the Magnolia Tribune.
