Long
time
“Law
and
Order”
state
Mississippi
maintains
its
time-honored
tradition
of
denying
its
people’s
rights.
On
its
own,
that’s
an
admittedly
vague
introduction.
Which
right?
To
life?
To
elect
judges
rather
than
have
them
appointed?
This
time
it’s
the
federal
Constitution’s
right
to
an
attorney
in
criminal
trials.
As
it
turns
out,
they’ve
been
skirting
Gideon
for
a
couple
of
decades
now.
From
the
much-appreciated
ProPublica:
Public
defense
systems
across
the
country
are
overburdened
and
underfunded,
but
Mississippi
stands
out.
Nationally,
it
ranks
last
in
how
much
money
it
spends
per
capita
on
public
defense,
according
to
the
Sixth
Amendment
Center,
a
nonprofit
that
advocates
for
a
robust
defense
for
the
indigent
—
those
who
can’t
afford
their
own
lawyer.…
Mississippi
has
long
failed
to
monitor
or
evaluate
local
courts
to
see
whether
they’re
delivering
that
defense…The
Northeast
Mississippi
Daily
Journal,
ProPublica
and
The
Marshall
Project
have
identified
courts
that
aren’t
following
the
state
Supreme
Court’s
rules
on
public
defense,
including
judges
who
fail
to
appoint
lawyers
as
early
as
required,
or
who
deny
counsel
to
defendants
for
inappropriate
reasons.
It
was
bad
enough
knowing
that
the
“Lawyer
Dog”
fiasco
was
a
Louisiana
one-off.
But
to
know
that
Mississippi,
with
its
particular
relationship
of
race
and
punishment,
has
made
a
habit
of
failing
to
appoint
lawyers
in
a
timely
manner
or
denying
them
outright,
is
a
tragedy.
When
someone
is
put
on
a
case,
it’s
not
a
guarantee
that
the
legal
representation
they
receive
will
be
meaningful
—
and
that
goes
back
decades:
“There
is
not
much
lawyering
going
on.
I
get
them
through
the
system
and
get
them
out
of
here,”
an
unidentified,
part-time
public
defender
bluntly
told
consultants
for
the
Mississippi
Bar
Association
as
part
of
a
state
government
effort
to
reform
the
public
defense
system
in
the
1990s.
Coupling
the
lack
of
adequate
legal
representation
in
court
with
a
police
department
that
has
a
history
of
racial
profiling:
It
makes
you
wonder
about
the
validity
of
crime
statistics
that
come
from
areas
where
poor
defendants
are
likely
to
have
faulty
representation.
And
survey
says
that’s
most
places.
I
don’t
know
the
exact
number
of
criminal
statistics
used
to
make
policy
decisions
that
are
based
on
a
plea
bargain
system
—
one
where
poor
people
with
shoddy
legal
representation
are
forced
to
gamble
between
a
plea
deal
and
going
to
court
with
an
overworked
public
defender
if
they’re
lucky
—
but
for
a
problem
of
this
magnitude,
anything
above
zero
is
a
problem
for
our
union.
Even
when
a
defendant
escapes
a
guilty
verdict,
their
consequences
of
getting
caught
up
are
heavy:
In
a
2003
study,
the
NAACP
Legal
Defense
and
Educational
Fund
reported
that
a
lawyer
on
the
Gulf
Coast
said
that
he
never
tried
to
locate
or
interview
witnesses
because
by
the
time
he’s
been
appointed,
nine
months
to
a
year
have
typically
passed
since
the
crime.That
study
highlighted
the
case
of
a
man
arrested
in
the
northeast
Mississippi
city
of
Tupelo
for
possession
of
crack
cocaine.
The
court
appointed
three
different
lawyers
in
succession.
The
first
two
never
spoke
with
the
defendant
and
did
not
respond
to
his
phone
calls
or
letters.
On
the
day
before
the
trial,
the
third
lawyer
told
the
court
that
he
had
not
prepared
for
his
client’s
case.
The
evidence
against
the
man
was
so
weak
that
he
was
acquitted
by
a
jury
after
less
than
15
minutes
of
deliberation.
He’d
spent
eight
months
in
jail.
Government
transparency
and
accountability
really
aren’t
the
high
expectations
they’re
made
out
to
be.
There’s
no
excuse
for
most
of
Mississippi
not
having
an
active
plan
for
indigent
defense.
They’ve
should
have
had
the
memo
since
Gideon.
Your
state
should
too.
Mississippi
Courts
Won’t
Say
How
They
Provide
Lawyers
for
Poor
Clients
[ProPublica]
Earlier:
Public
Defender
Schedules
Are
So
Swamped
It
Probably
Isn’t
Constitutional
Chris
Williams
became
a
social
media
manager
and
assistant
editor
for
Above
the
Law
in
June
2021.
Prior
to
joining
the
staff,
he
moonlighted
as
a
minor
Memelord™
in
the
Facebook
group Law
School
Memes
for
Edgy
T14s.
He
endured
Missouri
long
enough
to
graduate
from
Washington
University
in
St.
Louis
School
of
Law.
He
is
a
former
boatbuilder
who
cannot
swim, a
published
author
on
critical
race
theory,
philosophy,
and
humor,
and
has
a
love
for
cycling
that
occasionally
annoys
his
peers.
You
can
reach
him
by
email
at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and
by
tweet
at @WritesForRent.