Day Four
April 08, 2007
April 07, 2007
Day Three - "House of D" - Suyeon's Take
Fun at the House of D
On Friday, I went over to the House of Detention to interview a client whose file was missing his indigency determination form. The same unsmiling man was behind the desk at the entrance again, and again he took my ID and added it to the stack already there. I told him who I was coming to visit, and he called up to bring our client to the meeting room. He gave me a laminated “Attorney” name tag and I dropped off my bag under his desk. I walked up the steps to the second floor, and the stairwell opened up into an empty room, with some benches pushed into the corner and locked doors leading to seemingly unused rooms. At one far corner, a sign on a door announced in all capitals: “You are now in a prison. Your person and belongings may be searched at any time.” I pushed through it and entered the visiting area. A long and narrow space, A row of cubicles facing a glass partition and looking into an empty room, and On the right, doors opening into individual meeting rooms. Although long waits are the norm, as the guards escort inmates from other floors and even buildings, my client showed up almost immediately. He was a middle-aged black man with a shaved head. We picked up our phones and I introduced myself. I asked him whether he needed someone to post bond for him. He replied that he was in prison to take a break to think about his life and straighten himself out, and to think about his two children, so he wasn’t really trying to get out. During the interview, I also found out that he had been in Minnesota since Katrina, and had just got to town a week before and was living in a hotel. He had three sisters in town, with whom he seemed to have lukewarm relationships with, but he gave me their names and contact numbers. Our discussion took fifteen minutes, and it took about that long to get the form signed by the client, involving an intricate choregraphy between myself and the deputy.
On Good Friday, the courthouse was closed. But arraignments continued regardless of the holiday schedule and the Cardozo team covered arraignments and first appearances. We asked Andy whether he thought it would be busy over the Easter Weekend, and he said, “Well, it depends on how many people get killed on Friday and Saturday night.”
We’re getting well-acquainted with the House of D and the arraignment process. The prisoners file in, shackled at the ankles, and they sit on folding chairs, or lean on the wall, or lie on the floor in some cases. Volunteers fan out with indigency determination forms, which we needed to fill out in order to qualify them for a public defender. Sitting in close, we spend just three or four minutes filling in their name, date of birth, address, contact information, the name ofand number os someone who can post their bond, and then their basic financial information. If they make less than a certain amount, they qualify. Most of our clients pass the bar with flying colors. We collect the forms, create file folders, and then wait for arraignments, where we quickly write down the bond amounts given by the judge during their court appearance bty webcame. Then we make courtesy phone calls to the given contact to let them know that their friend or son or husband is in prison, and needs to be bonded out.
Today, Andy stood at the front and announces in his Louisiana drawl that, "Everything is gonna go real quick, so you need to listen to the judge for your bond amount." And it does go quickly. "Possession for armed robbery, ten thousand, drug paraphernalia, two thousand, possession of illegal weapon with narcotic, five thousand. The judge recites like he‘s reading a train schedule, and moves on to the next person. The judge did dismiss a few cases for lack of probable cause, but we couldn’t hear why from the HOD side. And it's again worth mentioning that for the third arraignment in a row, the one person whose case was dismissed was white.
Day Three - "House of D" - Kathy's Take
Today, we spent the afternoon at the House of Detention. We interviewed defendants who were appearing in front of the judge for the first time since their arrest. We had to determine whether the inmate qualified for indigent status, and therefore could retain OPD's services and most importantly, collect a contact person from each individual to call him or her and let them know that the defendant was arrested and sitting in jail, and what his bail amount was. Defendants gave us numbers for their wives, mothers, other relatives, and friends. One even chuckled a little bit when he gave me the number of his ex-girlfriend to call.
As I interviewed each defendant, I was struck by the state they were in. Some were calm, while others were shocked. One defendant did not even have shoes and was walking around in a pair of ankle socks. Most of the defendants were between the ages of 17-25 and arrested on drug related charges. Our OPD supervisor, Andy, commented that it was the failure of the education sytem the led to these crimes, a reminder that crimes do not exist in a vacuum and were the result of the intersection of multiple social ills.
The hearings began soon after we finished the interviews, and we all looked closely at the television screen in front of us, and listened intently to the computer speakers. Because the city did not have enough resources to bring the inmates from central lock-up to the courthouse, which was only a block away, the judge held hearings via webcam. Although a resourceful way to hold hearings, it still struck me as very odd that although the city did not have the resources to transport the inmates to the courthouse, the judge did not walk over to the House of D to hold the hearings.
The judge inquired into the prior records of each defendant to set the bail amounts. On the drug related charges, he consistently asked how much drugs were found on the defendant because of the New Orleans Police Department policy of arresting individuals using drugs along with anyone found with that person. He quickly held hearings for the 45 inmates we interviewed and we recorded the bail amounts as he set them so that we could call and inform the inmates' relative or whoever that he was in jail and what the bail was set at. Then the room cleared as quickly as it filled and only empty chairs remained.
The "House of D" sits amidst a block of buildings flooded by Hurricane Katrina. With no resources to restore the buildings, they sit abandoned. Plants are quickly claiming territory.
Outside the "House of D," Andy answers our questions.
Mike Akerly, Kathy Hwang, Adam "Tom" Shane, Choya Washington, Suyeon Kim
April 06, 2007
Day Two - Carpetbaggers from the North
Suits, Ties and Guys
"What are you guys, lawyers? You guys are like carpetbaggers from the North."
- The owner of our hotel
The criminal courthouse stands on a desolate strip of Tulane Avenue, a speedy four-lane roadway that turns into a highway. Like most courthouses, most of the business signage around it is for bail bondsmen. The courthouse itself is beautiful, and the lobby area leading to the courtrooms has what looks like fifty foot vaulted ceilings. Soaring windows line the wall across from the courtroom doors. The floors are marble, and intricate moldings and murals of blind and beautiful Justice cover the height of the walls, reaching up to the ceiling.
"The Impartial Administration of Justice is the Foundation of Liberty."
Engraving on the Orleans Parish Criminal Court.
Local bail bondsmen on Broad Street and Tulane Street.
We observed Tanzanike, a public defender, argue in Section L before Judge Alarcon. The state asked for continuances on most of the cases, so she didn't have to do much arguing when we were there. At one point, another defender named Stewart asked that the judge dismiss a case because the state had failed to ever produce evidence against his client. His urging was met by bitter frustration on the part of Judge Alarcon over the state of the criminal justice system. He flatly stated that "The degree of incompetence in this system is mindboggling." He continued, "I say it on the record every day." We were struck by the court's seeming inability to order police to bring evidence to an apperance on an appointed date. Judge Alarcon remarked that, "I really don't believe anything that anyone tells me on the condition of evidence. I don't think they really know."
Kathy Hwang and OPD lawyer Tanzanike review notes for a motion to appeal.
April 04, 2007
Day One - Hitting the Ground Running
The Orleans Public Defenders' office is located in downtown New Orleans, on the seventh floor of an office building a few steps from the Magistrate Court and the House of Detention. The offices take up the entire floor, and quotations in gothic capital letters are the primary decorations in the public spaces: from Nietzsche ("Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.") to Theodore Roosevelt ("Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.") The office is bright and spacious, with windows with 360 degree views, but there are still no nameplates on the doors. The office tower in which the defenders office is in an area where the effects of Katrina are still very visible: the views from the windows include houses that look abandoned with torn roofs. The nearby House of Detention has a rust colored stain on its doors and walls at chest-height, marking the flood water line. The House of Detention's capacity has also never recovered its capacity since Hurricane Katrina, so tents have appeared behind it to accommodate the jail population. More recent hurricanes are also making an impact:after a courthouse flooded with three inches of water last week, it was closed and other courtrooms are picking up the slack.
If anything, public defenders are busy. We walked in at ten past nine (late because we couldn't find Tulane Avenue, where the office is located), and before we could get comfortable in the conference room, we were grabbed by various attorneys and given assignments. Choya went off to help a staff attorney in court with a trial (the client was acquitted!); another staff attorney grabbed Mike and took him off to do some research on the public records hearsay exception; Kathy began to research a memo on eyewitness identification; and Adam and I helped out at arraignments and bond hearings.
Adam assists OPD lawyer Matt Robnett with research.
Mike drafts a memo.
Arraignments were an opportunity to view the Louisiana criminal justice system from the very beginning of the process. Just insisde the "House of D" (the rest of the word "detention" had fallen off the entrance's sign), in the old line-up identification room, thirty defendants in neon orange shirts emblazoned "OPP" for "Orleans Parish Prison" sat in folding chairs, each one shackled to a fellow defendant at his ankles. A large flat screen television stood at the elevated space at the head of the room. Arraignments were held via webcam. At the appointed time, the judge appeared on the screen. Via the screen, he would call a name, and that person would stand, along with his shackled compatriot, and they would both shuffle to the front so the judge could see them on his screen. Both the client and the judge had a public defender on their side: one helped the clients, and the other argued for bond amounts before the judge. The webcam only had a microphone for the judge, so defendants could not hear the arguments of the prosecutor, or the responses of the public defender. The crimes I observed being arraigned ranged from marijuana possession to one case of aggravated rape (bail set at $200,000). Most were crack/cocaine possession, and the judge generally set bail at around $20,000 (of which the defendant would have to post thirteen percent, or about $2,000). I couldn't hear what the public defender was arguing, but the lack of variation in bail amounts for particular charges suggested that the individual variables, like flight risk and ties to the community, were given marginal weight by the court. In a too-classic example of the race distinctions in the criminal justice system, the only person whose case was dismissed was white. Every other defendant was black, with the exception of one latino man, and they all went back to the pen.
To summarize, the first day on the job was both an eye-opening experience, as well as a welcome opportunity for us to apply our legal training in concrete ways. Tomorrow promises to be equally exciting.
April 02, 2007
Spring Break 2007: Volunteering with the Office of the Orleans Public Defenders
My name is Suyeon Kim, and I'm very proud to be a part of the group of Cardozo students who will be spending this Spring Break volunteering at the Public Defenders Office in New Orleans. The group also includes Kathy Hwang (1L), the coordinator, Adam Shane (1L), Mike Akerly (1L), and Choya Washington (3L). We all wanted to spend our time off to learn about the New Orleans criminal justice system and try and do our small part to improve the state of indigent defense in that city. This trip has been generously funded in part by members of the Cardozo community, including administration and faculty, as well as by friends and family. I will be recording our experiences through this blog, and we invite you to keep track of our progress during the coming days. Our first day on the job will be Wednesday, April 4th, and we'll all be in New Orleans by tomorrow to settle into our hotel, the Creole Gardens, located in the lower Garden District.
Here is an article from CNN.com from just this past Friday that briefly describes the latest development in the ongoing struggle for adequately funded indigent defense in New Orleans: a criminal court judge ordered the release of 42 criminal defendants because they were not receiving adequate representation (the judge immediately stayed the order to mid-April). The last paragraph is a quote from the head of the Defenders Office, Steve Singer, who suggested that the judge was frustrated by the Louisiana state legislature's failure to allocate the requisite funding to create a functional defender's office:
New Orleans judge orders 42 freed
POSTED: 3:13 p.m. EDT, March 30, 2007
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- A judge on Friday ordered the release of up to 42 criminal defendants, saying they aren't being adequately represented by the city's financially struggling indigent defenders office.
But Orleans Criminal Court Judge Arthur Hunter immediately delayed the order to mid April.
It wasn't clear how many suspects would be released after April 18 if Hunter's order stands.
The order would suspend their prosecution but not dismiss the charges against them.
Assistant District Attorney David Pipes said his office might appeal. He said most of the 42 defendants face drug charges, but several are charged with violent crimes, including armed robbery and sexual battery.
Hunter faulted the Louisiana Legislature for failing to adequately fund the Indigent Defenders Office in New Orleans.
"Hurricane Katrina is no longer an excuse and the state has a budget surplus. Indigent defense in New Orleans is unbelievable, unconstitutional, totally lacking the basic professional standards of legal representation and a mockery of what a criminal justice system should be in a western civilized nation," the judge wrote.
Before the hurricane hit, three-quarters of the defenders office's budget was financed by traffic court fines. That revenue dried up after the Katrina devastated New Orleans in August 2005.
Hunter, who had released some inmates facing misdemeanor drug possession charges last year for the same reason, said he delayed his new release order so he could get more information from the District Attorney's Office, the state bar association and the indigent defenders.
"I think the judge is clearly frustrated with the Louisiana Legislature's repeated failure to step up to its obligation to fund a critical aspect of the criminal justice system -- that is, indigent defense," said Stephen Singer, lead trial counsel for the public defenders office.
Judging from this article, it looks like we won't lack for things to do during our stay.
