In a recent op-ed, Stephen Bright, president of the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, wrote that Georgia is failing to provide defense for poor people accused of crimes in a constitutionally responsible manner. According to Bright (pictured), today there is no money to pay for the defense in capital cases, while district attorneys continue to have a virtual blank check to prosecute them Georgia’s failure to pay defense lawyers has caused many of them to withdraw from representing defendants. The original defenders are then replaced with lawyers who must start the defense anew, which, in effect, doubles the cost and lowers the efficacy of the defense.

Some district attorneys in Georgia are trying to exert control over the selection of the defense counsel - their adversaries – and have occasionally succeeded. In another abuse, in the well-publicized case of Brian Nichols, Bright pointed out that the politically-appointed Georgia Public Defender Standards Council filed a motion to “reconfigure” the defense team and designate a new lead attorney despite “the case [being] very capably handled by its lead counsel in the last two and a half years.” Even though Georgia pays private attorneys at a rate of $125 to $225 per hour for civil work, the Standards Council has not paid the lawyers in the Nichols’ and other capital cases anything for six months.

Bright concludes, “Constitutional principles cannot be abandoned because there is not enough money to do the job. Several judges in Georgia, like courts in other states, have followed constitutional requirements by insisting on adequate funding for the defense before allowing capital prosecutions to proceed. The Public Defender Council, other judges, prosecutors and lawyers should follow their example.”
(“Georgia beggars indigent defense,” by Stephen B. Bright, Fulton County Daily Report, January 24, 2008). See Costs and Representation.
UPDATE: The judge in the Brian Nichols case recused himself after some of his comments about the defendant were reported in the media.