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.

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