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Alabama's system of providing attorneys to poor defendants in criminal cases is so decentralized and fragmented that it places poor people in great jeopardy. There are no standards, guidelines or training requirements for attorneys handling indigent cases. There is no state oversight of the quality and effectiveness of appointed counsel in indigent cases, and no state oversight of the continuing escalation in the cost of indigent defense in Alabama. Indigent defense cost in Alabama has risen from around $17 million in FY 1998 to over $45 million.
In 2003, Alabama Appleseed began its Indigent Defense Project. The purpose of the initial phase of the project was to begin to document and gather evidence about the inadequacies of the Indigent Defense system in Alabama. The initial phase of the program used law school interns to investigate cases from four judicial circuits where contract public defenders, hired for a set dollar amount, are used in place of an established public defenders office. The investigations concluded that, generally speaking, clients of these contract defenders are grossly under represented resulting in an inordinate amount of guilty pleas, case postponements and general inattention to client requests for information about their cases. In 2003 we also began work to form a coalition to seek the needed reforms. In this regard, we work closely with Alabama State Bar President, Bill Clark, a Birmingham attorney. Our work with Bill Clark related mostly to helping him put together and coordinate a day-long symposium on the status of indigent defense in Alabama in order to raise public awareness of the need for reform.
In February 2004 this daylong Symposium was held in Montgomery at the State Capitol Auditorium. Alabama Appleseed's Executive Director, John Pickens, not only helped Bill Clark arrange and coordinate the symposium, but he also appeared as a panelist. As a result of the symposium, and at the request of Bill Clark, John Pickens coordinated the re-drafting of a prior bill drafted in 2000 to establish a State Indigent Defense Commission with central authority over the substantive and budgetary aspects of the indigent defense system. The draft bill was not introduced in the 2004 or 2005 legislative sessions as there was not clear support for it.
In July, 2005, Alabama Appleseed's Executive Director, John Pickens, was appointed by the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court to the Chief Justice's Indigent Defense Study Committee. This Committee was charged with the task of developing and recommending the best way to reform Alabama's fragmented indigent defense system. By mid-December, 2005, the Committee had met several times and that reviewed and revised the prior draft legislation which would establish a state-level Indigent Defense Commission. This piece of legislation was introduced during the 2006 legislative session, but did not secure favorable consideration by the House Judiciary Committee.
In February 2008, Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb re-established the Chief Justices’ Indigent Defense Study Commission and asked Appleseed’s John Pickens to again serve on the Commission. That commission is currently looking at revisions to the 2006 legislation with a view toward redrafting several sections that raised concerns in 2006 in order to build consensus support for its passage.
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