“I felt that the time had arrived when the Court would lay down the general rule that every man, the poor as well as the rich, was entitled to the benefit of counsel.”
That’s Abe Fortas, speaking in 1963 after he successfully argued the side of Clarence Earl Gideon in the landmark Supreme Court case Gideon v. Wainwright. The victory upheld a defendant’s right to counsel in state criminal courts. Over 50 years later, civil liberties groups are claiming that Utah’s indigent defendants are being systemically denied that right.
A new study from the Sixth Amendment Center found that accused individuals across the state who rely on public defenders either received negligent counsel or none at all in many cases. John Mejia of the ACLU of Utah said that public defenders in the state are often overworked on limited resources.
“Probably a majority of the counties use what’s called a ‘flat fee contract,’” Mejia said. “They will make arrangements with one or more attorney’s and say, ‘for a set amount of money, you attorney’s office or you attorneys will cover every single crime that face indigent defendants in this county.’ So, we have lawyers with variable caseloads that very often unmanageably high.”
The report recommended that a commission should be set up to review the state’s public defense system. Mejia said that while such a commission would be a step in the right direction, more immediate action is required.
“The problem with setting up a commission without any immediate standards and immediate funding is that it pushes the solution to this immediate crisis down the road,” he said. “And every single day that people are actually or constructively denied counsel is another day where people are facing immediate harms and immediate constitutional violations.”
Aside from prison time, convictions can also lead to difficulty in finding housing and employment, as well as a loss of eligibility for federal student loans.
