Lefstein Authors Report On Inadequate Representation
08/29/2017
IU McKinney Professor of Law and Dean Emeritus Norman Lefstein is principal author of a new American Bar Association report about how misdemeanor courts operate in Nashville, Tennessee.
The report, “Denial of the Right to Counsel in Misdemeanor Cases: Court Watching in Nashville, Tennessee,” was presented to the ABA Section on Civil Rights and Social Justice and approved and released on August 11.
While the report addresses inadequate representation for defendants in Court 1A in Nashville, Dean Emeritus Lefstein says that national reports have documented the failure of state and local governments and their courts to implement, as required, the right to counsel in misdemeanor cases for accused persons unable to afford a lawyer.
“The contents of the report are fairly shocking about the way the misdemeanor courts in Nashville operate, though as the report makes clear this is not all that unusual,” Dean Emeritus Lefstein says. “Poor people in our criminal courts often have their rights trampled upon, and this report is simply a vivid illustration of what frequently transpires.”
According to the report, on September, 2016, volunteer monitors at the county courthouse in downtown Nashville observed defendants in Court 1A, where prosecutors invited the accused to plead guilty and finalize plea deals, without informing them of their right to representation under Tennessee and federal law.
“From the outset of the proceeding, the prosecutor’s obvious goal is to arrange for defendants to plead guilty,” the ABA report states.
“Observers also noted the failure of Nashville’s judges to inform defendants adequately of their right to a lawyer, or to inquire whether defendants had the financial capacity to make payments, or whether they were aware of the option to seek a reduction of fines and costs,” the report notes. “The burden of these practices falls disproportionately on the poor and minorities, because these are the persons who are the most frequent defendants in the courts observed. Over the course of a year, just in Court 1A alone, approximately 30,000 persons are impacted annually, as noted earlier in this report.”
The report was highlighted in an August 14 story (https://www.propublica.org/article/misdemeanor-defendants-not-told-right-to-counsel-bar-association-finds) on the Pro Publica website.
In a related story, Dean Emeritus Lefstein was quoted in “Part Two: Inadequate Representation Leads to Conviction,” as part of the “Justice For All?” series created by Indiana Public Media at https://indianapublicmedia.org/news/part-woman-inadequate-representation-led-conviction-124289/
Dean Emeritus Lefstein, who served as dean of the law school from January 1, 1988 until June 30, 2002, has published extensively about public defense in the United States. He is a former chair of the ABA Section of Criminal Justice, and a former member, consultant, and now special advisor to the ABA Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants.
