Indigent Defense
The Sixth Amendment guarantees every person accused of a crime the right to an attorney for his or her defense, regardless of ability to pay, and the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees all citizens equal rights regardless of race or national origin. Yet all too often, these rights are violated by indigent defense systems that leave low-income people, including many people of color, without adequate representation.
Resources
Michigan’s Crumbling Public Defense System Continues to Lock Up Innocent People (2011 blog): illustrates how Michigan's public defense system is often unable to effectively represent its clients and how, despite constitutional guarantees, a court hearing does not ensure a fair or just decision. Too often, innocent people go to jail, or those who have broken the law receive sentences that are harsher than the facts of their crime warrant.
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Faces of Failing Defense Systems: Portraits of Michigan's Constitutional Crisis (2011 feature): Although the constitutional obligation to provide the indigent with defense counsel rests with the states, Michigan long ago delegated that responsibility to its 83 counties and then turned its back. Without state oversight, most counties never provided their public defense attorneys with the tools they needed to do their jobs. These deficiencies were never remedied. Today, the overwhelming majority of Michigan’s public defense systems are seriously under-funded and poorly administered.
Coalition Letter to Senate Leadership and Appropriatons Committee Urging Oppostion to the Oppose the “Lummis Amendment" in H.R. 1 (2011 resource)
House Democrats Vote to Strengthen Legal Services for the Poor (blog 2010)
Duncan et al. v. Granholm - State Supreme Court Order (2010 resource)
Duncan et al. v. Granholm (2010 case)
Duncan et al. v. Granholm - Case Profiles (2009 case)
Equal Access to Justice for the Poor (2009 blog)
