In a letter from U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff to the U.S. Judicial Conference that was made public this week (available here), the Senator expressed concern that “several federal district courts fail to consistently appoint defense counsel for low-income defendants prior to their initial appointment.” The letter urges the Judicial Conference to prioritize ensuring that every person is afforded legal counsel at their first appearance and bring “the offending district courts into compliance with federal law,” as required by 18 U.S.C. § 3006A(c) and FRCP Rule 44.
Citing research by the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic at the University of Chicago, the letter identifies ten federal judicial districts that “consistently deny defendants access to counsel” at initial appearance: District of Arizona, Western District of Kentucky, Northern District of West Virginia, Eastern District of Virginia, Northern District of Mississippi, District of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western Districts of Texas. “By denying defendants timely access to counsel, each of these district courts violate both federal law and the federal rules of criminal procedure,” according to Senator Ossoff.
The letter also highlights University of Chicago research showing the significant consequences of delayed legal representation:
[A]rrestees who received full representation at the initial appearance were detained in 67% of cases. Those who received partial representation were detained in 89% of cases. Where the accused had no lawyer at all at the initial appearance, every single one was detained.3 And the impacts hit minority communities most acutely—92% of unrepresented detainees in the study were people of color.
The research referenced is from a report titled Freedom Denied: How the Culture Created a Federal Jailing Crises (October 2022), by lead author Alison Siegler at the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic at the University of Chicago.
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