A study ordered by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has found pay for court-appoint­ed defense lawyers in death penal­ty cas­es in Philadelphia to be ​“gross­ly inad­e­quate.” The study, which was authored by Common Pleas Court Judge Benjamin Lerner, was ini­ti­at­ed after defense lawyers peti­tioned the Court to increase the fees or halt death-penal­ty cas­es. The study not­ed there are few­er than 30 lawyers in Philadelphia will­ing to take cap­i­tal-case appoint­ments for indi­gent clients who meet the state qual­i­fi­ca­tions. Philadelphia pays defense lawyers less than any oth­er coun­ty in the state, giv­ing lead coun­sel a flat fee of $2,000 to pre­pare a cap­i­tal case, includ­ing the first half-day of tri­al. For the rest of a tri­al, a lawyer gets $200 for half days and $400 for full days. Judge Lerner said ​“The exist­ing com­pen­sa­tion sys­tem unac­cept­ably increas­es the risk of inef­fec­tive assis­tance of coun­sel in indi­vid­ual cas­es and is pri­mar­i­ly respon­si­ble for the First Judicial District’s grow­ing inabil­i­ty to attract a suf­fi­cient num­ber of qual­i­fied attor­neys will­ing to accept court appoint­ments in cap­i­tal cas­es.” The study also not­ed that the lack of will­ing, qual­i­fied attor­neys led to waits ​“that in too many cas­es, [have] delayed jus­tice to the thresh­old of denial.” The report rec­om­mend­ed that Philadelphia spend an addi­tion­al $340,000 on cap­i­tal-case attor­neys, on top of the $200,000 spent in 2010. 

(R. Moran, ​“Report calls pay for lawyers in Philly death-penal­ty cas­es ​‘gross­ly inad­e­quate,’ ” Philadelphia Inquirer, February 22, 2012.) See Representation and Studies.

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