Feds pick Miami to roll out effort to help indigent get better access to lawyers

Unlike the rich, most people accused of breaking the law need a public defender or a private attorney to represent them at taxpayer expense.

The system has worked that way since the 1960s, but the Biden administration admits it could stand improvement. On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice launched a nationwide tour in Miami to recognize the 60th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court ruling, Gideon v. Wainwright, guaranteeing a defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to a lawyer and a fair trial.

The “Gideon” tour, named after the North Florida man who had to represent himself after being charged with stealing $5, soda and beers from a Panama City bar, promises to be more than ceremonial. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, second-in-command at the Justice Department, met privately with South Florida’s federal public defender, Michael Caruso, and other defense attorneys and prosecutors to gather information on how indigent defendants could be better represented through the complicated process of arrests, detention hearings, plea deals and trials.

As part of the initiative, the Justice Department also launched a 100-day review of its efforts to ensure “timely access to counsel” in Bureau of Prison facilities, which has been a source of complaints by defense lawyers seeking to meet with their clients detained before trial, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the meeting at the public defender’s office on Flagler Street, Monaco invoked the spirit of former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, the late Miami native for whom she worked as counsel in the late 1990s. Reno had convened a “historic” National Symposium on Indigent Defense. Monaco cited Reno’s core message in a 1999 report: “Our criminal justice system is interdependent: if one leg of the system is weaker than the others, the whole system will ultimately falter.”

Caruso, who oversees 50 assistant public defenders in the Southern District of Florida, described how the landmark Gideon decision and then passage of the Criminal Justice Act paved the way for indigent people to be represented by federally funded private attorneys and eventually public defenders in the 1960s.

But at the meeting, Caruso highlighted shortcomings in the system, zeroing in on a defendant’s lack of access to a lawyer immediately after his arrest and placement in the Federal Detention Center.

“In our district, an accused may not have a lawyer at various critical stages — like the initial appearance and bail hearing [in court],” Caruso said. “Those in prison — many of whom are seriously ill or who have a loved one who requires care-taking — may not have a lawyer to seek a compassionate release.

“And there are many other structural issues that still plague our criminal legal system and impede the effective assistance of counsel,” he said, citing “the lack of meaningful access to our detained clients and uneven discovery practices.”

Miami defense attorney Henry Bell, a former assistant federal public defender, echoed Caruso’s views. Bell now represents 175 lawyers in South Florida’s federal courts who are regularly appointed by a judge to represent indigent clients.

“Things really devolved or got worse during the pandemic,” Bell said at the meeting. “And as far as I’m concerned, there is no good reason for keeping in place pandemic practices where we must deal with deadlines and client’s speedy trial rights.”

Bell said the Federal Detention Center, operated by the Bureau of Prisons, does not consider a defendant’s right to see his lawyer.

“This is a pretrial detention center with a mission tied to the court cases and process where they have to facilitate our client’s representation, but it’s not a priority to them,” said Bell, who also pointed out that the computers and software are “not up to par” so clients cannot review evidence and correspondence effectively.

Also present at Thursday’s meeting were U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe, Miami-Dade Public Defender Carlos Martinez and the Justice Department’s Office for Access to Justice Director Rachel Rossi.

“The mission of the Department of Justice is not only to uphold the rule of law and keep the country safe, but also to protect individual rights,” said Lapointe, who represented criminal defendants before his appointment as South Florida’s top prosecutor. “The Sixth Amendment right of criminal defendants is a core principle of America’s justice system and one that my office, and the Department as a whole, takes seriously.”

Rossi, who had worked in the state and federal public defender offices in Los Angeles, told the gathering that she will be leading the “Gideon” tour from Miami to Tulsa, then to Las Vegas, Nashville and Des Moines, and, finally, to Washington, D.C., where Attorney General Merrick Garland and Access to Justice will host a reception.

“Our mission is to break down barriers to accessing the promises and protections of our civil and criminal legal systems,” including supporting public defenders and indigent defense, Rossi said, adding that more federal resources are needed to solve the problem.

Caruso ended on a note of optimism: “I hope today reaffirms the dialogue that started 60 years ago — between the Department of Justice and those who work on behalf of the poor — to finish what we started — working toward a legal system where equal justice doesn’t depend on the amount of money a person has.”