 |
| Bar
leaders continue urgent plea for
death penalty moratorium, volunteer lawyers
By Faye A. Silas |
|
 |
No issue is more important
to the administration of justice than the way we deal with the death penalty,"
remarks Michael Greco of Boston, chair of the American Bar Association
Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities, to members of the National
Conference of Bar Presidents.
Citing reports of ineffective counsel in capital cases the fact that up to 93 people have been released from death row since 1973 due to evidence disclosing their innocence; geographic disparities and racial bias cited by the U.S. Department of Justice in the administration of the federal death penalty, four bar leaders appealed to the bar presidents to address these serious issues in their states and join the ABA’s “Call to Action” for a moratorium on executions. “Whether you’re in favor or not of the death penalty, we cannot continue a system that’s run like ours in the United States. Very few people on death row get adequate counsel in the states. The system is fraught with injustices,” says Lawrence Fox of Philadelphia, chair of the ABA’s Death Penalty Representation Project. Fox talked about the need for lawyers to take death penalty appeals cases, saying that the ABA’s death penalty project had 60 files available. The need for counsel is critical because, in 1995-96, Congress eliminated state funding for the resource centers that handled capital post-conviction cases. He discussed the project’s own resource center and its training program, which is recruiting lawyers and providing technical assistance on the death penalty appeals process to lawyers who do not have the substantive background necessary to handle these cases. “We need lawyers. The moratorium is a great idea . . . but none of us is unrealistic enough to think that we’ll get it tomorrow. We must get a moratorium one defendant at a time,” Fox says, referring to the appeals process. Law firms need to take these cases, remarks Larry Hammond, whose Phoenix law firm is working in partnership with the local public defender’s office on death penalty cases. While experienced, the public defender doesn’t have the resources of a major law firm and the firms lack the in-the-trenches experience on capital cases held by the public defender, he explains. |
 “Very few people on death row get adequate
counsel in the states. The system is fraught with injustices.”
- Lawrence Fox
|
“This process works at all levels,” Hammond says of the mutual partnership and the sharing of resources. Thomas Lorenzi of Lake Charles, La., another panelist, reviewed the horrific situation in Louisiana when Congress cut funding for the state’s post conviction resource center, which left a committee of the Louisiana State Bar Association to scramble to recruit lawyers to handle the cases. “People within days of execution never had post-conviction representation. We reached a point of desperation,” recounts Lorenzi, who chairs a public interest law firm that handles death penalty cases and whose firm is one of a handful in Louisiana to take cases. With approximately 50 inmates on Louisiana’s
death row, about nine law firms have taken cases. The dearth of firms,
Lorenzi believes, is because the Louisiana Legislature only recently approved
a provision that recognizes the right to counsel for death row inmates.
Under the auspices of the Louisiana Supreme Court and the state bar, an
indigent defense assistance board was recently created to handle post-conviction
cases. While state funds will be allocated for the agency, volunteer lawyers
are still needed, he notes.
Call for moratoriums Lorenzi is also working to impose a moratorium on executions. In January 2000, the moratorium resolution he introduced to the Louisiana State Bar Association’s policy-making body passed, and was forwarded to the governor. While the governor does not favor a moratorium, a bill calling for one has been introduced into the state legislature this year. Two death row inmates have been released due to their innocence; two other capital convictions have been reversed due to incompetent counsel; and one conviction was reversed because of DNA evidence. In 1997, the ABA House of Delegates approved a resolution that calls for states that have death penalty statutes to impose a moratorium on executions until changes are made in the capital punishment system to ensure its fairness. ABA President Martha Barnett urges bars to take this position and work with state legislatures to implement policies and procedures that encourage competent counsel in capital cases; preserve and enhance meaningful habeas corpus review of death penalty proceedings; eliminate racial and ethnic bias in capital sentencing; and prohibit imposing the death penalty on mentally retarded people and people who were juveniles at the time of their offenses. In Illinois, Gov. George Ryan suspended executions in January 2000. Approximately 13 death row inmates in Illinois were freed due to new evidence, one of which was 48 hours away from execution, according to ABA statistics. The author is the editor of Bar Leader. |
