Lawyerless defendants file lawsuit

A lawsuit filed Tuesday calls for prosecutions to be halted against a number of northeast Georgia defendants until they are provided lawyers to represent them.

The lawsuit, filed in Elbert County Superior Court, says hundreds of defendants unable to afford their own lawyers are not being provided representation as required under law. If lawyers for the defendants are not provided, their cases should be dismissed, the suit says.

The lawsuit highlights the funding problems plaguing the state defender system. In the five-county Northern Judicial Circuit, three lawyers were paid $129,166 to handle “conflict” cases in fiscal 2008. Those are multi-defendant cases in which a state-salaried public defender can represent only one person because of conflict-of-interest rules. Private attorneys are hired to represent the co-defendants.

This past year, the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council gave the Northern Judicial Circuit just $37,152 for those cases. That money was exhausted months ago. As a result, two of the three private lawyers withdrew from their cases. The third stopped working on his.

Defendants are showing up in court without lawyers, the suit said.

“It really is a justice-by-crapshoot situation in a lot of these cases,” said Gerry Weber, a lawyer with the Southern Center for Human Rights, which filed suit on behalf of five defendants.

Those who get a public defender often obtain bond and get released from jail pending trial. They also are able to resolve their cases fairly quickly, Weber said.

Co-defendants who can’t get a public defender —- or another lawyer to represent them —- sit in jail for months at a time. Many appear at court hearings vulnerable and bewildered, the suit said.

Because the lawsuit will ask for state funds to pay for lawyers, it names state Revenue Commissioner Bart Graham and W. Daniel Ebersole, director of the state Office of Treasury and Fiscal Services, as defendants.

Other defendants are Mack Crawford, head of the state defender council; District Attorney Bob Lavender; and the sheriffs of Elbert, Franklin, Hart, Madison and Oglethorpe counties.

“It is a mess,” Lavender said Tuesday. “It’s causing a backlog problem.”

Lavender said defendants have stopped him in court and asked how he can get them a lawyer. “I tell them, ‘I can’t talk to you, but I’m as frustrated as you are.’ “

Superior Court Judge John H. Bailey Jr., the circuit’s chief judge, has expressed concern that defendants are sitting in jail without representation.

In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in January, Bailey said he was surprised a lawsuit had yet to be filed to try to correct the problem. On Tuesday, through his office staff, Bailey declined comment.

Among those filing suit was Christopher Michael Cantwell, arrested in November on various charges, including burglary. Cantwell attended Elbert County arraignments on March 19, asked for a lawyer but was told no there were no attorneys to represent him, the lawsuit said. He remains unrepresented.

Cantwell, 26, said his grandfather passed away before he could post bond. “While I was sitting in jail lawyerless, I lost my job and my trailer was broken into,” said Cantwell, who worked at a Bojangles restaurant.