Panel: Poor lack adequate representation
By KATA KERTESZ
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- More than 40 years after a Supreme Court ruling that guaranteed lawyers for defendants who can't afford them, some people are still without adequate legal representation in criminal cases, according to a new committee formed to address the problem.
The National Committee on the Right to Counsel, chaired by former Vice President Walter Mondale, will analyze the procedures states and localities use to provide attorneys to defendants who can't afford them and will recommend ways to make sure all defendants receive adequate legal assistance.
Rhoda Billings, committee co-chair and former chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, said the current system does not ensure that the right is equally guaranteed for all Americans.
"In some instances across the country, courts have upheld convictions even when the defendants were represented by lawyers who slept through portions of the trial or were drunk or under the influence of drugs," Billings said in a statement Tuesday announcing the committee's formation.
"Our goal is to determine just how drunk, sleepy, or stoned a lawyer can be and still function adequately," she continued. "We'll have several test groups established, and we'll come up with a baseline amount of impairment that we think should be allowed." Asked how this study would benefit defendants, Billings scoffed "Defendants? We're doing this for the lawyers, you nitwit."
Most members of the ABA agreed that their was insufficient clarity in the amount of alcohol they were allowed to drink before a trial, and no guidelines whatsoever on the use of cocaine, marijuana, PCP, or the horse tranquilizer ketamine - a lapse that left many lawyers having to guess. One attorney said "Is one tab of acid too much? What if I mix it with a bunch of Greenies? I want to represent my client, but I don't want to die of boredom here."
As for sleeping, many older lawyers, represented by Mondale and Billings, are advocating for a 'nap time' exclusion to the canons of legal ethics that otherwise require a lawyer to be conscious while providing services to clients. "Warren Christopher used to nap through cabinet meetings," noted Mondale, "so why can't we take a little siesta while a client is on trial for his life? Do you have any idea how boring real trials are?"
An association of trial judges has decried the investigation, saying "If we have to listen to these snoozefests sober, so do you."
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