Endnotes 1. Pew Center on the States, One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections, The Pew Charitable Trusts (March 2009), at 12. 2. Chief Justice Jean Hoefer Toal of the Supreme Court of South Carolina, South Carolina Bar Association, 22nd Annual Crimi- nal Law Update (January 26, 2007). 3. C OLO . R EV . S TAT . § 16-7-301(4) (2008). 4. Abdon M. Pallasch, Call to Limit Cases Amuses Public Defenders , C HICAGO S UN T IMES , (July 24, 2006); Erik Eckholm, Citing Workload, More Public Defenders Are Refusing Cases , N.Y. T IMES (Nov. 8, 2008) (noting Miami misdemeanor public defenders have approximately 2,400 cases). Regarding Miami, according to documents filed in court, the defender office in Dade County had 21 mis- demeanor attorneys in 2006-2007. By the 2006-2007 fiscal year, those attorneys handled 46,888 new cases (2,232 per attorney). By the 2007 calendar year, they handled 50,115 cases (2,386 per attorney). 5. The authors use the term “public defense” to cover any publicly funded defense service, whether provided by an institutional public defender office with attorneys on salary, a contract defender, or private defense attorney accepting appointment from the court. Similarly, we use the term public defense attorney to refer to all attorneys who accept public defense work, whether as part of a public defender office, through a contract, or by appointment. 6. The questionnaire was distributed to defense attorneys. The goal was to learn what was happening in as many jurisdictions around the country as possible. The goal was not to secure statistically accurate responses. Individuals who participated in the survey were assured that their identities would be kept confidential. Full results, with the exception of identifying information, are available upon request from Indigent Defense Counsel at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. 7. This project focuses on state courts and will not discuss either federal or tribal courts. 8. In some states, including Iowa, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Colorado, and Maryland, the sentence can be two years, or even longer. 9. A recent New York Times article examining New York’s town and village courts, which are frequently presided over by non- lawyer judges, reported that 30 states continue to use non-lawyer judges. William Glaberson, In Tiny Courts of N.Y., Abuses of Law and Power, N.Y. T IMES (Sept. 25, 2006), at A1. 10. National Center for State Courts, 2007 Criminal Caseloads Report at 45, available at http://www.ncsconline.org/D_Re- search/csp/2007_files/Examining percent20Final percent20- percent202007 percent20- percent207 percent20- percent20Criminal.pdf (last visited Mar. 2, 2009). 11. Other experts have presented similar estimates. Testifying in Congress on June 25, 1997, Chief Judge George P. Kazen of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas stated that in 1996 there were 9.4 million misdemeanors filed in state courts. See Transcript, House Judiciary Committee Hearing (June 25, 2007), available at http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/judi- ciary/hju43386.000/hju43386_0f.htm (last visited Mar. 2, 2009). 12. The volume of misdemeanors in federal court is much lower than in state court, but it is growing. A recent federal court newslet- ter reported: “The Border Patrol has proposed filing 26,000 petty and misdemeanor offenses a year in the Tucson division at this time, or 100 per work day added to the court’s normal daily docket. Ultimately, the goal of the Border Patrol is to prosecute an additional 700 defendants a week, or 36,000 new cases a year.” Federal Courts Hit Hard by Increased Law Enforcement on Border, T HE T HIRD B RANCH (July 2008). 13. See, e.g. , District of Columbia v. Clawans , 300 U.S. 617 (1937); Smith v. Illinois , 380 U.S. 129 (1968). 14. Duncan v. Louisiana , 391 U.S. 145 (1968); Baldwin v. New York , 399 U.S. 117 (1970). Some states provide for a jury trial in all cases in which a jail sentence is possible. See, e.g., C AL . P EN . C ODE § 689 (2008). 15. Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 225, 244 (1963). 16. John M. Junker, The Right to Counsel in Misdemeanor Cases , 43 W ASH . L. R EV . 685, 685 (1968) (citations omitted).
49
17. Argersinger v. Hamlin , 407 U.S. 25 (1972). 18. Alabama v. Shelton, 535 U.S. 654 (2002). 19. Id. at 667 (quoting United States v. Cronic , 466 U.S. 648, 656 (1984)). 20. 407 U.S. at 33.
21. It is interesting to note that, at the time of the Argersinger decision, annual misdemeanor caseloads across the country were estimated at between four and five million court cases, approximately half of the estimated annual caseload today. Id. at 34. 22. Id. at 34-35. 23. Id. at 38 (citations omitted). 24. “The term ‘collateral sanction’ means a legal penalty, disability or disadvantage, however denominated, that is imposed on a person automatically upon that person’s conviction for a felony, misdemeanor or other offense, even if it is not included in the sentence.” Collateral Sanctions and Discretionary Disqualification of Convicted Persons, American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section Standards, Standard 19-1.1. 25. For a summary of New York law concerning criminal convictions and deportation, see Manuel Vargas, Immigration Conse- quences of New York Criminal Convictions, available at http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/4cs/immigration/ (last visited Mar. 16, 2009). 26. See Clyde Haberman, Ex-inmate Denied Chair (and Clippers) , N.Y. T IMES (Feb. 25, 2003) at B1; Nora V. Demleitner, Pre- venting Internal Exile: The Need for Restrictions on Collateral Sentencing Consequences , 11 S TAN . L. & P OL ’ Y R EV . 153, 156 (1999)
Endnotes
The Terrible Toll of America’s Broken Misdemeanor Courts
Made with FlippingBook Online document maker