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Statements of NACDL President E.E. (Bo) Edwards and President-Elect Barry Scheck regarding In Defense of Public Access to Justice
Statement of NACDL President E.E. (Bo) Edwards
“For nearly a decade, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers has taken an active role in state and local efforts to reform and improve public defender systems. We are and have been involved in many different state reform campaigns nationwide that include strategies such as legislative advocacy, coalitions with the state bars and state judiciaries, and free training for public defenders and court-appointed counsel. When such efforts have failed, however, NACDL has used litigation as a mechanism for ensuring that an indigent defense system provides adequate and effective representation to indigent defendants in criminal and juvenile cases.
“Sometimes legislatures need a little push or guidance in order to ensure that they do not neglect the least of their citizens. NACDL has the resources to work with the legislature, the judiciary and the state bar to improve Louisiana’s public defender system. Litigation is, of course, a last resort. But sometimes it is necessary where states have not taken action to improve failing indigent defense systems and to ensure that our precious constitutional rights are not just words on paper, but live and breathe in us all, rich and poor alike.”
Bo Edwards is a criminal defense lawyer in private practice in Nashville, TN.
Statement of NACDL President-Elect Barry C. Scheck
“When an indigent defense system fails, as it clearly has in Louisiana, innocent people go to prison while the people who actually commit crimes remain free – oftentimes committing more crimes. This undermines citizens’ faith in the criminal justice system. Furthermore, the added long-term fiscal costs that result from the state’s failure to invest in justice on the front-end – such as the costs of pre-trial and post-disposition incarceration, appeals, re-trial, settlements with innocent people who have been unfairly convicted, and systemic litigation – all of these costs are borne by taxpayers and community businesses on the back-end. Thus, when justice is not delivered in a fair, correct, swift and final manner, taxpayers shoulder an enormous increase in costs while at the same time remaining vulnerable to crime – the community bears the cost of the state’s fiscally irresponsible policies.”
Barry Scheck is Co-Director of The Innocence Project in New York, NY, which has freed 142 innocent prisoners to date.
For related NACDL News Release, click here.
To read the report, click here.
For more information, including report highlights, visit www.nacdl.org/avoyelles
| The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is the preeminent organization advancing the mission of the criminal defense bar to ensure justice and due process for persons accused of crime or wrongdoing. A professional bar association founded in 1958, NACDL’s 12,000-plus direct members in 28 countries – and 90 state, provincial and local affiliate organizations totaling more than 40,000 attorneys – include private criminal defense lawyers, public defenders, military defense counsel, law professors and judges committed to preserving fairness and promoting a rational and humane criminal justice system. |
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National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL)
1660 L St., NW, 12th Floor, Washington, DC 20036
(202) 872-8600 • Fax (202) 872-8690 •
assist@nacdl.org
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