WASHINGTON, DC, February 23, 2009 — The recent Georgia State Senate vote in favor of Senate Bill 42 on February 19th, puts in danger the constitutionally promised right of low-income Georgians to have adequate and fair legal representation when charged with a crime. The bill would strip the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council of all its powers, except to serve as an advisory board, and leave the actual running of the state’s public defense system to a politically appointed director. If passed by the Georgia House of Representatives and signed into law by Gov. Sonny Perdue, an estimated 1.3 million people, or three out of every 20 people in the State of Georgia, risk seeing their rights in court and access to equal justice dependent upon political whims, prejudices and fads.

Senate Bill 42 creates a public defense system in direct violation of The American Bar Association’s Ten Principles of a Public Defense Delivery System, which requires that “The public defense function, including the selection, funding, and payment of defense counsel, is independent.” Public defense systems without such independence are subject to political influence, wasting taxpayer money by building a system that is crippled from the start in carrying out its constitutional duties. Agencies such as these create the appearance of government doing its job, but are inadequately funded and ultimately result in mistakes that waste taxpayer money on retrials and appeals and even result – as Georgians well know – of innocent people being found guilty while perpetrators are left on our streets to victimize again.

“Georgia is at an important crossroads in providing for its public defense system,” said NLADA President & CEO Jo-Ann Wallace. “The state can either strip it of its independence, leaving hundreds of thousands of its residents in danger of loosing their right to counsel, or it can move forward and continue to mold a public defense structure in accordance with the nationally approved ABA Ten Principles of a Public Defense Delivery System.”

NLADA urges Gov. Perdue and Georgia lawmakers to throw out Senate Bill 42 and provide a system that is 100 percent funded by the state and provides 100 percent equal treatment for all its residents, ensuring that the amount of justice that a Georgian receives does not depend on his ability to pay for it.

# # #

The National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA), founded in 1911, is the oldest and largest national, nonprofit membership organization devoting all of its resources to advocating equal access to justice for all Americans. NLADA champions effective legal assistance for people who cannot afford counsel, serves as a collective voice for both civil legal services and public defense services throughout the nation and provides a wide range of services and benefits to its individual and organizational members.