About half of Pennsylvania’s death row of 240 inmates comes from Philadelphia. Yet in the 11 years that the Defender Association of Philadelphia has been han­dling cap­i­tal cas­es, not one of their clients has been sen­tenced to death. The Defender Office han­dles one of every five cap­i­tal cas­es in the city. The dif­fer­ence between life and death appears to rest with the qual­i­ty of rep­re­sen­ta­tion and often comes down to dol­lar and cents. ​“What is going on in Philadelphia is real­ly a mod­el exam­ple of what can be done when cap­i­tal defense is ade­quate­ly fund­ed. In juris­dic­tions where the pub­lic defend­er received ade­quate fund­ing … it makes a strik­ing dif­fer­ence in the qual­i­ty of defense that is pro­vid­ed,” said Terri Mascherin, chair­woman of the American Bar Association’s Death Penalty Representation Project. The Defender Association pro­vides each client with 2 lawyers and a pri­vate inves­ti­ga­tor. In addi­tion, a team of psy­chol­o­gists and mit­i­ga­tion experts explores evi­dence that might help jurors decide against a death sen­tence. By com­par­i­son, the court-appoint­ed attor­neys who still han­dle 80% of the cap­i­tal cas­es in Philadelphia some­times get as lit­tle as $2,000 for expens­es and receive only $400 in fees for each day of tri­al. (Associated Press, April 6, 2004) See Representation.

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