Justice, Common Sense Prevail


	Print or Email This Page Justice, Common Sense Prevail December 8, 2007 Times-Picayune Editorial Any independent observer would applaud the state appeals court decision this week to overturn the contempt conviction of Steven Singer, a volunteer lawyer with the New Orleans public defender's office. Orleans Criminal Court Judge Frank Marullo had found Mr. Singer in contempt and sentenced him to a day in jail and an ethics course. Mr. Singer's sin, according to Judge Marullo, was to help find a pro-bono attorney outside the public defender's office for a man that Judge Marullo said could afford a lawyer. Not even in moot court should that be grounds for contempt. A three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal unanimously concluded that Mr. Singer had not disobeyed Judge Marullo's orders or "interfered with the orderly administration of justice." The decision came from Judges Ronald Belsome, Terri Love and Leon Cannizzaro. Judge Marullo found Mr. Singer in contempt in part because an investigator for the public defender's office was still working on the case -- even though the agency had been removed from it. Public resources should not be used for cases the public defenders' office is no longer handling, and administrators need to make sure of that. But as Judge Cannizzaro mentioned in a concurring opinion, nothing indicated that the investigator was working under the direction of Mr. Singer. The contempt conviction was not Judge Marullo's only bad decision in this case. He also ordered the defendant to fire his pro-bono attorney, a staff member at the Loyola Law Clinic, and to hire a paid lawyer. A judge clearly can rule that a defendant is not indigent enough to get a public defender, but it seems legally shaky to tell a defendant that he cannot have a free lawyer who is not in the public defender's office. Fortunately, that's what the State Supreme Court concluded. Overturning Judge Marullo on that issue, the court said "the right to private, non-appointed counsel of choice does not distinguish between a paid attorney and a pro-bono lawyer." In other words, it's none of the judge's business whether the defendant pays for a lawyer or gets one for free. But there are more than legal issues involved in this case, and both Judge Marullo and Mr. Singer should draw lessons from it. Mr. Singer, a Loyola University law professor, is the chief of criminal trials for the public defender's office and has helped turn around its operations after Hurricane Katrina. In that role, he has often clashed with some judges who according to court observers had grown accustomed to meddling in the office. The judges need to understand that the public defender's office is supposed to work as an independent body, and thus occasionally will be at odds with court decisions -- just as private attorneys are when representing their clients. But Mr. Singer, who openly challenged Judge Marullo in court regarding the contempt conviction, also needs to be more diplomatic. In the long run, antagonizing judges is not in the best interest of the clients the public defender's office serves. Let's hope both sides are mature enough to see it that way.
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