New York Times Legal Help Often Fails New York's Poor By JANE FRITSCH and DAVID ROHDE A murder
defendant who cannot afford a lawyer can expect to have one
appointed for him. That much is the law. But in New York City, there is some basic legal work an indigent
defendant cannot expect. Most lawyers appointed to represent the
poor do not hire private investigators to look for witnesses or
evidence. Most do not get expert witnesses, like psychiatrists or
pathologists, to help challenge the prosecution's case. Most do not
take the time to go to the scene of the crime. And most do not make
a single visit to the jail on Rikers Island to discuss the case with
their clients. In fact, a defendant facing life in prison may get a lawyer who
spends as little as 20 hours on the case — half a week's work — and
is paid as little as $693, less than the cost of the average real
estate closing. Thirty-eight years after the United States Supreme Court ruled in
Gideon v. Wainwright that indigent defendants have a right to legal
counsel, New York City offers representation to the poor that
routinely falls short of even the minimum standards recommended by
legal experts. In a seven-month analysis of thousands of city records and court
cases in 2000, The New York Times From the felony courts to the misdemeanor mills and the parole-
violation trailers on Rikers Island, defendants frequently get
assembly-line representation from lawyers who may spend only a few
minutes on each case. For their part, the lawyers complain that they are overworked and
underpaid in a system under pressure to produce a high volume of
quick guilty pleas. The number of lawyers willing to take such cases
has dropped sharply in recent years, and some who do sign up say
privately that they are forced to cut corners. More than most big cities, New York relies on private lawyers to
represent the poor in homicide cases. It is a system more typical of
rural, Southern states. In most big cities, that job is done by
public defender's offices that pay their lawyers salaries. In New York, private lawyers are assigned by the court from a
pool of volunteers after they meet screening requirements to show
they have some experience. They are paid $40 an hour for courtroom
work and $25 an hour for work out of court, the second-lowest rate
in the nation. Alabama, Louisiana and West Virginia, which all have lower costs
of living, pay higher rates. And Arkansas, at an average of $80 to
$85 an hour, pays twice the New York rate. Lawyers and legal experts in other parts of the country said New
York's system of defending the poor was as troubled as those in
states commonly thought to be much tougher on defendants, like Texas
and Alabama. Judith S. Kaye, New York State's chief judge, described the
indigent defense system as "a seriously bleeding patient." She has
been pushing for higher pay, but acknowledges that the problems go
deeper. "When you're bleeding, this is not a time to start talking about
revamping the system," Judge Kaye said in an interview. "If the
rates are made equitable, we can then begin to address the other
problems." The stakes are highest in homicide cases, which often end with a
sentence of life in prison. The Times analyzed all 137 New York City homicide cases completed
by appointed lawyers in 2000. In 42 of the cases — nearly one-third
— the lawyers did less than a week of preparation, raising questions
about their effort and thoroughness. In only 12, lawyers spent at
least 200 hours — five weeks or more — investigating and preparing
their cases, a sign of appropriate diligence, according to legal
experts who reviewed the data compiled by The Times. The median for all cases was 72 hours, not quite two weeks'
work. "One can't help but be shocked at the number of homicide cases in
which the lawyers are putting in a handful of hours in preparation,"
said Lawrence C. Marshall, the legal director of the Center on
Wrongful Convictions at the Northwestern University School of Law.
Professor Marshall, who reviewed the homicide data for The Times,
said preparation time should be well beyond 100 hours. His center
has helped to exonerate several death row inmates in Illinois. "The
cases we've won were won on the street," he said. Death penalty cases, which are handled differently from others in
New York, were not included in the study. Only one was completed in
New York City last year. The Times compiled data on homicide cases contained in hundreds
of pages of detailed bills the lawyers must submit to the city to be
paid. The bills indicate what the lawyers did and how much time they
spent doing it. The city checks these documents for double-billing
and other errors, but has never reviewed them to assess the quality
of the legal work. Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who plays a central role in shaping
the indigent defense system, declined to be interviewed. His
criminal justice coordinator, Steven M. Fishner, said Mr. Giuliani
supports a pay raise, but thinks the system works well. It meets the
needs of the poor "by constitutional standards and beyond," Mr.
Fishner said. "It's doing a good job." He said it was not the city's
responsibility to monitor the quality of work by appointed lawyers.
That is the job of the Appellate Division of the State Supreme
Court, he said. The Appellate Division has never reviewed the lawyers' bills,
either. It screens the lawyers who want to represent the poor, but
does not routinely review their performance. Most of New York's court-appointed lawyers work alone. Some have
secretaries, others do not, and a few work from home to save the
expense of an office, a violation of a rule that is rarely enforced.
For defendants, it is the luck of the draw. They must take whatever
lawyers are assigned to them. A Case Study Juan Carlos Pichardo first met his appointed lawyer, Louis
Grisorio, the day after he was arrested in March 1994 and charged
with the murder of a drug dealer shot in East Harlem six weeks
earlier. Mr. Pichardo, then 23, had no criminal record and knew
little about the legal system. He had no money to hire a lawyer, so
Mr. Grisorio was appointed. Continued
Copyright © 2001. New York Times Company. All rights reserved. saved from url: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/08/nyregion/08LAWY.html
April 8, 2001
Defense Bungles
A Murder Trial
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