According to a new report released by the Tennessee Justice Project, indi­gent defense attor­neys in the state receive far few­er dol­lars and ​“in-kind” resources than pros­e­cu­tors. This dis­crep­an­cy cre­ates an uneven play­ing field that under­mines the pub­lic’s con­fi­dence in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem. The report, Resources of the Prosecution and Indigent Defense Functions in Tennessee, is based on find­ings from a study con­duct­ed by The Spangenberg Group, one of the nation’s lead­ing experts on state crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tems. The Group deter­mined that ​“in the course of over three decades con­duct­ing nation­wide research on finan­cial resources fur­nished to the pros­e­cu­tion and the defense in indi­gent cas­es, the find­ings in Tennessee are the most telling exam­ples of dis­par­i­ties we have found,” a con­clu­sion that the Tennessee Justice Project says under­scores the need for sig­nif­i­cant crim­i­nal justice reform.

The Spangenberg Group’s study exam­ined fis­cal year 2004 – 2005 fund­ing infor­ma­tion from a vari­ety of sources, includ­ing the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts, the District Attorney Generals’ Conference, the Public Defenders’ Conference, the Indigent Defense Fund, and oth­er fed­er­al, state, coun­ty and local gov­ern­men­tal fund­ing sources involved in indi­gent crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion and defense. Researchers dis­cov­ered that indi­gent defense attor­neys receive less than half the mon­ey giv­en to pros­e­cu­tors, and when tak­ing into account ​“in-kind” ser­vices pro­vid­ed to the pros­e­cu­tion from var­i­ous fed­er­al, coun­ty and munic­i­pal law enforce­ment agen­cies and experts, pros­e­cu­tors receive more than four times as many resources than are pro­vid­ed to indi­gent defense coun­sel.

​“When even the most capa­ble and hard-work­ing attor­neys lack ade­quate resources to do their job, there is an increased risk that inno­cent peo­ple will be incar­cer­at­ed, guilty peo­ple may nev­er be pros­e­cut­ed, and oth­er defen­dants will receive unfair­ly exces­sive sen­tences,” said Bill Redick, Director of the Tennessee Justice Project. Bradley MacLean, a Nashville defense attor­ney and Assistant Director of the Tennessee Justice Project, added, ​“We are not sug­gest­ing a decrease in resources for the pros­e­cu­tion func­tion. We are sim­ply advo­cat­ing for rea­son­able par­i­ty for indi­gent cas­es between the defense and the pros­e­cu­tion so that the defense coun­sel is includ­ed as an equal part­ner in the jus­tice sys­tem.”


(The Tennessee Justice Project Press Release, June 27, 2007). Read the Study. Read the Press Release. See Resources, Representation, and Innocence.

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