In the 11 years since the Defender Association of Philadelphia began to rep­re­sent clients fac­ing mur­der charges, it has com­piled an envi­able record: Not one of its 994 clients has been sent to death row. (During the same time, scores of defen­dants in Philadelphia rep­re­sent­ed by appoint­ed pri­vate attor­neys have been sen­tenced to death.) ​“It stands out as some­thing that is not matched any­where else,” said David J. Carroll of the National Legal Aid and Defender Service. The Defender Association of Philadelphia, a non-prof­it cor­po­ra­tion financed by the city, has a homi­cide unit com­prised of 11 attor­neys who rep­re­sent a fifth of the city’s indi­gent mur­der defen­dants using an annu­al bud­get of $2 mil­lion. Each cap­i­tal defen­dant is assigned two attor­neys, one to han­dle the guilt phase of the tri­al and one to han­dle the sen­tenc­ing phase should the defen­dant be found guilty. Investigators, social work­ers, and mit­i­gat­ing experts are all part of the Association’s staff, and cap­i­tal defense attor­neys have the abil­i­ty to hire knowl­edge­able out­side experts. ​“What they’ve done is devel­op a mod­el for cap­i­tal defense, which real­ly should be done across the coun­try,” said attor­ney David Rudovsky, who sits on the Defender Association’s Board of Directors and believes the Philadelphia team’s all-encom­pass­ing approach should be imple­ment­ed in all 38 death penal­ty states. Common Pleas Court Judge Benjamin Lerner, the Association’s chief defend­er from 1975 – 1990, said, ​“Their rep­re­sen­ta­tion, includ­ing not only the qual­i­ty of their lawyers, but the total­i­ty of ser­vices they offer – is at least as good as the best pri­vate rep­re­sen­ta­tion that mon­ey can buy.” (Philadelphia Inquirer, May 25, 2005) See Representation.

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