The costs of the death penal­ty are a key fac­tor affect­ing the qual­i­ty of rep­re­sen­ta­tion in cap­i­tal cas­es in at least three states. Lack of rep­re­sen­ta­tion in parts of the death penal­ty process has been cit­ed recent­ly in courts in Georgia, Alabama, and Utah.

Budget prob­lems at the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council have pre­vent­ed pay­ments to lawyers since March 1, accord­ing to an offi­cial at the Council. Defense attor­neys say the states’ inabil­i­ty to meet the costs asso­ci­at­ed with cap­i­tal tri­als is a vio­la­tion of cap­i­tal defen­dants’ con­sti­tu­tion­al rights to due process. ​“Basically, we have zero fund­ing. It forces us to be inef­fec­tive,” said Georgia cap­i­tal defense attor­ney Richard Hagler. 

In Alabama, a law­suit request­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tion filed by six death row inmates has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The inmates say that Alabama, the only state in the nation that does not pro­vide con­demned inmates with attor­neys for post-con­vic­tion appeals, has denied them the oppor­tu­ni­ty to effec­tive­ly chal­lenge their death sen­tences. Three for­mer Alabama Supreme Court jus­tices, a for­mer appel­late judge, and 3 for­mer pres­i­dents of the state bar have filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court sup­port­ing the inmates’ claim. The brief states that more than a dozen con­demned Alabama inmates have no attor­ney to han­dle their appeal. According to a report in the Tuscaloosa News, even if the state want­ed to cor­rect the prob­lem, it could not afford to do so.

In Utah, court offi­cials are still search­ing for an attor­ney will­ing to rep­re­sent death row inmate Ralph Leroy Menzies in his appeal. Mark Field, a staff attor­ney for the Utah Administrative Office of the Courts, said more than a dozen lawyers have said no to tak­ing over the Menzies case, most­ly for finan­cial rea­sons.
(Ledger-Enquirer (Ga.), Tuscaloosa News (Al.), and Salt Lake Tribune (Ut.), May 15, 2007). See Representation and Costs.

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