Analysis

One's economic status plays a huge role in what a person is able to accomplish in life. Yet in the courtroom all men are supposed to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, and have the same equal rights no matter how much or little money a person possess. Yet the affect of economic status on court cases can still be seen today. We as a society have gone in the direction of placing a person's value in the amount of money he or she has. By doing this we as a society have become biased in favor of people who have money and looking down on people of lower economic circumstances.
This posting will focus on the impact that economic status can have on a defendant's case by affecting the quality of lawyer that the defendant can hire. An example of this is Mr. Christopher W. Adams, who was a lawyer appointed in the state of Georgia, to defend capital punishment cases for poor people. Mr. Adams defended thirty cases death penalty case, and none of his clients received the death penalty. This was the first time in recent history that this had happened in Georgia. Unfortunately Mr. Adams has resigned from his position because his office lacked proper financial funding. This type of situation perfectly illustrates how if clients have sufficient funding and a competent defense they can receive a fair trial. In fact, "95 % of the 3,350 people currently on death row could not afford their own lawyer." This statistic shows how poor people are at a disadvantage in capital punishment cases mainly because they cannot afford their own lawyer. Such a lopsided decision is a clear testimony that the system needs to be reformed since such a huge number of defendants convicted are poor. Several other cases exemplify the importance in hiring quality lawyers and why the state should provide quality legal counsel. An essay written by Stephen B. Bright discusses the importance of having quality lawyers. The essay talks about the case of a woman who was sentenced to death for killing her husband. Yet the defense lawyers forgot to mention that her husband had abused both her and her daughter and the death penlaty is not usually given in such a case. So there was a good chance that if the jury had heard this information they would have been perhaps more understanding and placed a lighter sentence. The woman unfortunately did not have the finanacial ability to hire a good lawyer meaning that the state appointed one who was terrible. This was demonstrated by the fact that the lawyer came to trial drunk one day. Appointment of such terrible lawyers cannot be considered justice since these lawyers are not even sober or competent to defend their clients. Alabama is one of the state's that pays its defense appointed lawyers the lowest amount; therefore, making it one of the states with the most people on death row. Since the state pays t lawyers such a low amount none of the quality lawyers want to take the cases of the poor defendants because they know they will not be payed well. In an article written for the NAACP by Miriam Gohara she discusses the poor defense lawyers that the defendants get from the state of Mississippi. She describes the way many lawyers only see their clients at trial, but it is impossible for a lawyer to form a proper defense unless he has met with his client. Another case of this kind can be seen in several cases in Georgia where the defendant's lawyers referred to them with racial slurs. Such horrendous behavior by defendant's laywers prove the lack of service provided by state employed lawyers when they are underpayed. Stephen B. Bright states that it requires, "Knowledge of proceedings that arcane and complex." This statement tells us why is it is so important to have lawyers that are qualified for capital punishment cases. The review further states that in Gideon V. Wainwright, "The dream of a vast, diverse country in which every person charged with a crime will be capably defended no matter what his economic circumstances". Both Democrats and Republicans in a bipartisan effort have supported legislation to improve legal counsel for poor people, and both agree that it is an issue that needs to be fixed. Senators on both sides have sponsored legislation to do this in the Innocence Protection Act which calls for improved legal counsel. Senator Patrick Leahy a Democrat from Vermont was one of the leaders of the movement in Congress and helped get the Act passed. An example of justice being properly carried out in a case involving economic class is in New Mexico where the Supreme Court of New Mexico stopped a case against two men for the death penalty because the defense did not recieve sufficient funds from the state. Though the chargers will not be canceled they are merely being put on hold until the defense gets proper funding and can provide a competent defense. The Court made this decision on October 31, 2007 which helps show just how recently the decision was made. This type of case helps demostrate the efforts being made on a state level to help make sure justice is carried out fairly. President George Bush also claimed in in his state of the union address in 2005 that the government would provide more training for lawyers in capital punishment cases; this is in addition to the Justice For All Act that he had signed earlier. The Just For All Act was legislation that called for DNA testing to be used to exonerat defendants in capital punihsment cases. Being poor also affects the juries opinion in that being poor can causes them to look down on the defendant and be more judgemental on him or her. This is demonstrated in the West Memphis 3 case where all three boys charged had little money and were considerd weird. The West memphis 3 is a good example because the jury jumped to the conclusion that the boys were guilty without hearing any evidence. I believe the jury based their decision off of appearance rather than evidence. Another example of the biased shown towards poor people is The Death of Innocence a book, written by Sister Helen Prejean, which discusses the defense of two men who were found guilty and put to death. The innocence of these two men has been widely discussed in the public though, yet Sister Helen talks about how the poverty of the two men affected the verdict they recieved. The lawyers of both men were not good, and one lawyer was even disbarred after the trial. he defendants also lacked the necessary fund to pay for DNA testing which might have reversed the verdict. Sister Helen calls for an end to the death penalty because she does not think that we can provide good defense lawyers for defendants.
Some people argue though that lawyers might get overpayed and that states can't afford to pay high rates to lawyers, howver; a scary statistic shows that only 50 lawyers in the US work for non profit cases which is a low number in a country with over 1 million lawyers. However I believe that lawyers should be paid a fair and equal sum that is the common wage to private lawyers. Standards of experience for lawyers in capital punishment cases for lawyers is also being placed in certain states. North and South Carolina are among some of the states that have passed legislation of this type. Hopefully other states will follow the Carolina's example. We as a society though should continue to call for reform of this issue. I believe that differences in economic status will always be present in our society, but i do believe that we can reduce the affect of one's economic status in court rulings. Hopefully America can return to fair and equal treatment of all men no matter what their economic status is.