<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>Perhaps what Governor Otter has been saying all along I s . . .</div><div><br></div><div>"Those Idahoans that can't afford a lawyer, don't deserve one."</div><div><br></div><div>Courtesy of today's (January 24, 2016) Spokesman Review.</div><div><br></div><div>---------------------------------</div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"></p><p class="p-author h-card sr-byline" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 40px 0px; font-family: 'Gotham SSm A', 'Gotham SSm B', sans-serif !important; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"></p><p></p><h1 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 48px; margin: 5px 0px 20px; font-family: 'Chronicle Display A', 'Chronicle Display B', serif; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); -webkit-font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'dlig' 1; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Editorial: Poor Idahoans deserve a lawyer</h1><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Indigent and possibly innocent Idahoans will not find justice until the state fulfills its duty to provide them effective legal representation.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Their search goes on. Thursday, a Boise judge dismissed an effort by four defendants, including one from Bonner County, to get the state to fully fund public defender offices. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Legislature slyly handed off to the counties responsibility for providing legal counsel to defendants, but provided no money to help them do so; a classic unfunded mandate.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The inadequacy of the resources committed to public defenders was confirmed in a 2010 report prepared by the National Legal Aid and Defenders Association at the request of the Idaho Criminal Justice Commission, which was appointed by then-Gov. Dirk Kempthorne.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Among the findings: There were no consistent standards for caseloads, training or performance for attorneys who could be representing defendants facing capital charges or misdemeanors.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In some counties, 19 of which pay a fixed fee for public defenders, one lawyer might be carrying the workload of four.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Kootenai County was among those specifically cited for insufficient support for public defenders. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The governor and Legislature have tacitly acknowledged their dereliction by serially creating a special governor’s subcommittee, a special legislative committee and, finally, an Idaho Public Defense Commission.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">That body, charged with promulgating rules for training defense attorneys and setting requirements for caseload and spending reports, was supposed to come back to the Legislature with recommendations every year on Jan. 20. Nothing happened last year. Nothing happened this year.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In his ruling, District Judge Samuel A. Hoagland did not contradict arguments the state – not the counties – was failing to fulfill its obligations under the Sixth and Fourteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution, as well as Article 1 of the Idaho Constitution.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He dismissed the case on other grounds, including government immunity, the standing of plaintiffs yet to be convicted, and separation of powers.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The American Civil Liberties Union will appeal, and well it should.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In 1963 – 53 years ago – a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court said the Constitution required that Clarence Earl Gideon, an indigent defendant, was entitled to a lawyer. The case, Gideon v. Wainwright, was profiled in a prize-winning book, “Gideon’s Trumpet.” </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Gideon was no angel, but when retried on the original burglary charge with a lawyer to represent him, the jury came back with a not guilty verdict in little more than an hour.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">There are hundreds, if not thousands, of Gideons in Idaho. Providing attorneys for each one will be costly, especially for counties with few resources. But Boise should be paying the bills.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The sanctity of the Constitution is invoked often by conservative Idahoans.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17.6px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">You can’t skip over the expensive parts.</span></p></div><div>---------------------------------<br><br><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div> </div></div></div></body></html>