Five different independent groups have called on Michigan to reform its system for paying lawyers to represent poor defendants. Each time the state has done nothing. Finally, that may be changing due to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union and a growing number of exonerations due to ineffective assistance of counsel.
Edward Carter is one such exoneration. Carter was convicted of assaulting a pregnant woman and spent 35 years in prison before finally convincing a court that he had actually been in police custody at the time of the assault. Carter’s court-appointed attorney was just out of law school and only met his client twice before the trial. Carter claims his attorney did not do anything on his case after Carter refused a plea bargain.
In many Michigan counties, court-appointed defense attorneys are paid a flat fee for each case they handle. In some other counties, contracts are awarded to groups of attorneys with the lowest bid. Mike Steinberg of the American Civil Liberties Union calls this “assembly line justice” and filed a lawsuit to stop the practice. “Court-appointed lawyers in Michigan,” Steinberg told NPR, “have to encourage their clients to plead guilty and keep the docket moving in order to generate the volume that they can make a living. So the incentive is to get your client to plead guilty as quickly as possible doing the least amount of work as possible.”
The issue even captured the attention of Michigan’s Republican governor who commissioned a study on how to improve the justice system for the poor. The group is planning to present its recommendations later this month.
Read or listen to the full NPR story here.
