California Western School of Law Professor Laurence A. Benner and Stephen B. Bright

In 1963, then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy said, “the poor man charged of crime has no lobby.”

Sadly, little has changed over the last 49 years to improve an indigent person’s access to quality legal representation.

“The courts are the institution least affected by the Civil Rights Movement,” says Stephen B. Bright, president and senior counsel of the Southern Center for Human Rights.

Bright spoke to California Western School of Law students and faculty about the lack of quality legal representation available to the poor.

“The right to counsel is the most fundamental right you have,” said Bright. “It’s not just a dream, it’s a constitutional requirement.”

Despite the constitutional requirement guaranteeing a person’s right to counsel, there are numerous examples of the inequalities that currently exist in our nation’s justice system. Bright shared a handful of examples, including:

Holly Wood, an intellectually disabled black man executed in Alabama in 2010 for the murder of his former girlfriend. The jury and judge who sentenced Wood to death were not aware of his disability because his court-appointed lawyer did not investigate his mental functioning. The U.S. Supreme ruled in 2002 that “that the execution of those with mental retardation (intellectual disability) is unconstitutional.” Alabama is one of several states without a public defender system. Bright questioned whether Wood’s fate would have been the same if he had access to quality legal counsel?

A person’s inability to access any legal representation can have deadly consequences as well. Jacqueline Winbrone was arrested in 2007 after a firearm was found in her car. Winbrone was unable to afford a lawyer, and unsuccessfully tried to contact an attorney to have her bail reduced so she could care for her husband who needed dialysis treatment several times each week. While she was in jail, Winbrone’s husband died. Still incarcerated, she was unable to attend his funeral. After writing to the court and with help from a prisoner’s rights group, Winbrone was eventually released under her own recognizance. The charges against her were ultimately dismissed. Bright condemned the denial of Winbrone’s right to a speedy trial and “Assistance of Counsel” for her defense.

“For many prosecutors it is a strategy nowadays to have people underrepresented. It gives them a strategic advantage,” said Bright.

Bright cited and praised the work being done be California Western Professor Laurence A. Benner and the California Innocence Project, led by Professor Justin Brooks.

Benner has written extensively about the excessive workloads given to public defenders, and the impact ineffective assistance of counsel has on a defendant’s rights to a fair trial.

Brooks has helped to exonerate nine wrongfully convicted individuals since founding the California Innocence Project in 1999.

“The most important message Stephen Bright shared with our students was that lawyers matter,” said Brooks. “When defendants go unrepresented, the system rolls over them. When lawyers don’t give their best efforts, the results can be devastating. I hope the students who heard Professor Bright speak were inspired to study hard, become excellent lawyers, and give their best efforts to their future clients.”  

To learn more about the inequalities in the justice system and the work being done to improve access to quality legal representation, visit secondclassjustice.com.