Justice system’s handling of poor subject of study

Kim Smith

Wednesday, Oct. 27, 1999 | 10:07 a.m.

Representatives of a nationally known research and consulting group are meeting with members of the legal community Thursday to discuss the possibility of studying indigent defense in Nevada.

The American Bar Association hired the Spangenberg Group after receiving a $105,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, said David J. Carroll, a research associate with the group.

"U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno has been very big on promoting indigent defense as an issue, and she believes it's a way to bring people together to improve the judicial system," Carroll said.

The bar association is concerned that several states don't have statewide commissions in place that would oversee how poor people are defended, Carroll said. As a result, it hired the Spangenberg Group to travel to six states and select those the bar believes would best benefit from the group's expertise.

Once the states are selected, the group would likely gather data on indigent defense and then offer its suggestions as to the best way to improve the system, Carroll said.

Nevada, Illinois, Oregon, Georgia, New York and Vermont are the six states, Carroll said.

"If a state has a county public defender system, the amount of money budgeted per county varies widely within some states," Carroll said. "Some counties will have quality departments and others have the bare minimum."

The Spangenberg Group, which was created in 1985 by Robert Spangenberg, "has a finger on the pulse of what's going on in indigent defense in the country," Carroll said.

Elgin Simpson, executive director of the Nevada State Task Force for the Elimination of Racial, Economic and Gender Bias in the Justice System, said he met Spangenberg two years ago. At that time, Simpson said, they discussed the possibility of a Nevada study.

There are a number of people in Nevada's prisons who would not be there had the justice system not let them down, Simpson said.

The Roberto Miranda case is just one example, Simpson said.

Miranda was sentenced to death in 1982 after being convicted in the stabbing death of Manuel Rodriguez Torres. Miranda insisted that a key prosecution witness had a reason to frame him, but his attorney, who had only passed the state bar four months earlier, failed to locate witnesses that would help prove his case.

Miranda's appeal attorney located the witnesses and convinced a judge to grant him a new trial. When prosecutors declined to try the case again, the case was dismissed and Miranda was released from prison in September 1996.

"For the state to turn Miranda loose it had to be pretty bad," Simpson said. "Imagine how many others there are."

Carroll said those states that have commissions to oversee indigent defense normally require attorneys to have certain qualifications before they handle death penalty cases and set limits on the number of cases each attorney can handle.

Simpson said public defenders and their investigators are frequently unable to investigate their clients' claims until right before trial.

Simpson said he has invited several state senators to Thursday's meeting in addition to Nevada Supreme Court justices, U.S. Attorney Kathryn Landreth, U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben and Clark County District Attorney Stewart Bell and his counterparts from throughout the state.

Carroll said it is too early to tell exactly how the group would proceed in Nevada, noting that will depend upon Thursday's meeting.

They will discuss what his experiences have been in other states and what types of help the Spangenberg Group can offer, Carroll said. Those gathered will make the ultimate decision as to how to proceed.

"This isn't a case of us coming in and saying 'We're going to clean up this town,' " Carroll said. "We are not going in with a preconceived end. We see our roll as advisors and a sounding board."