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Download the Coalition Sign On Letter
1600 Oretha Castle Haley, Floor 2
New Orleans, Louisiana 70113
Phone: 504-522-3949, ext. 250
Facsimile: 504-522-5430
www.lajusticecoalition.org
The Louisiana Justice Coalition:
The Louisiana Justice Coalition (LJC) is a diverse group of community leaders and organizations committed to the reform of our criminal justice system. LJC has initiated a comprehensive public education campaign to highlight the crisis in Louisiana's indigent defense system and to mobilize public pressure from the community. The campaign will create a sustained base for coalition members to continue to advocate for fundamental fairness for all of our citizens.
Preamble:
Louisiana's criminal justice system is broken. One of the primary problems is the system's long-recognized and well-documented failure to consistently provide quality, timely assistance of counsel to indigent persons. The indigent defense system in particular is so weakened in relation to the other criminal justice system components that it calls into question the ability of the entire criminal court system to dispense justice accurately and fairly.
Inadequate and unreliable funding, lack of uniform standards to ensure qualified representation, troubling miscarriages of justice against Louisiana citizens, glaring disparities in investigative resources between prosecutors and public defenders, and the absence of responsible state oversight are the shameful hallmarks of Louisiana's public defense system.
Failure to provide our communities with a competent, uniform and well-functioning indigent defense system threatens public safety, violates the constitutional guarantee of due process and makes the state vulnerable to expensive litigation.
Experts consider Louisiana to be among the worst indigent defense systems in the country. In the decade since the Louisiana Supreme Court noted a "general pattern...of chronic underfunding of indigent defense programs in most areas of the state," Louisiana's indigent defense system remains broken and has reached a point of crisis. Consider:
- It is not unusual for accused persons to spend more time in jail waiting for trial simply because they are indigent than they could possibly serve even if found guilty and timely sentenced.
- Often the only meetings between an indigent defendant and his or her attorney take place in the courtroom, in the presence of the judge and prosecutor, moments before trial.
- In one parish, a single attorney handles the workload equivalency of 6.3 full-time attorneys, while only working part time. Assuming a 1400-hour work year, clients facing felony charges are afforded approximately two hours apiece of this attorney's time, including those facing the death penalty.
- Public defense for juveniles is conducted with minimal training and as a low-priority in most jurisdictions in the state, disproportionately affecting our children. After adjudication, approximately 90% of children in Louisiana's prisons are left without representation. Each year, hundreds of children in Louisiana's juvenile justice system are abused but have no attorney to inform the courts of their abuse or advocate for early release.
- In the last 10 years twice as many people have been exonerated in Louisiana than have been executed. Since 1985, seven men have served nearly 75 years on Louisiana's death row before properly funded lawyers proved their innocence.
- Louisiana's auditors, who are entrusted with the responsibility to make sure tax dollars are spent responsibly, do not require adequate reporting.
In the 2004 Legislative Session, both chambers of the state legislature voted unanimously to create the Indigent Defense Task Force. The Task Force is working to analyze problems in Louisiana's indigent defense system and propose viable remedies. Despite this progress, we believe a public voice is necessary to champion this issue so that reform becomes a top priority for the state of Louisiana.
Platform:
We, a member organization or individual of the Louisiana Justice Coalition, pledge our support for the implementation of indigent defense reform that adopts the following positions:
- Fairness: We believe that the quality of justice a person receives should not depend on the amount of money he or she has. Any system that dispenses justice on the basis of an individual's income level violates fundamental fairness.
- National Standards: The only way to guarantee meaningful reform of Louisiana's indigent defense services is to implement a uniform, statewide system that complies with the American Bar Association Ten Principles of a Public Defense Delivery System and the American Council of Chief Defenders and National Juvenile Defender Center Ten Core Principles For Providing Quality Representation Through Indigent Defense Delivery Systems. Adhering to the Ten Principles for adults and juveniles ensure fairness and a sound criminal justice system.
- Accountability: Taxpayers deserve to know how their tax dollars are spent. In order to evaluate performance, reduce waste and remedy imbalances in funding, annual comparative reports of the finances of all agencies in the criminal justice system must collected and made accessible to the public. That information is currently unavailable, which violates the responsibilities of good government.
- Parity: Currently in Louisiana, District Attorneys and Sheriffs sit on huge accounts of surplus funds while public defenders struggle to make payroll and fail to provide adequate defense services. Parity in resources between the different agencies of the criminal justice system is necessary to ensure fairness, efficiency and reliability.
- Timely Solutions: Louisiana has dragged its heels on indigent defense reform for decades. Reform of Louisiana's broken criminal justice system is needed, and it is needed now!
I, the undersigned, endorse the above platform, and wish to join the Louisiana Justice Coalition:
Name: _______________________________________________________________________
Organization Name: _______________________________________________________________________
Contact Person: _______________________________________________________________________
Address: _______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Phone Number: _________________________
Fax: ___________________________
E-mail Address: _________________________________________________________________
The Louisiana Justice Coalition (LJC) will ensure the creation of a fully funded, statewide indigent defense system that complies with the American Bar Association Ten Principles of a Public Defense Delivery System and the American Council of Chief Defenders and National Juvenile Defender Center Ten Core Principles For Providing Quality Representation Through Indigent Defense Delivery Systems. LJC has initiated a comprehensive public education campaign to highlight the crisis in Louisiana's indigent defense system and bring about reform. The campaign will create a sustained base for coalition members to continue to advocate for fundamental fairness in Louisiana's criminal justice system for all of our citizens.
Louisiana Justice Coalition Founding Members
Dale Brown, civic leader
Ed Steimel, civic leader
Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children
Innocence Project New Orleans
Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana
Kathleen Hawk Norman, civic leader
Louisiana Appleseed
Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
Louisiana Bar Association
Louisiana CURE
Louisiana Interchurch Conference
Louisiana Public Defenders' Association
Mental Heath Association of Louisiana
Public Affairs Research Council
The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana
Urban League
Voice of the Ex-Offender (VOTE)
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