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A Public Defender Efficacy Study | 18 comments (18 topical)

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hoffman's op-ed piece (none / 0) (#18)
by mollybloom on Wed Jan 10, 2007 at 11:22:21 PM EST
One conclusion to be drawn from Hoffman's study is that judges on the Denver District Court give harsher sentences to poor (i.e. represented by the public defender) defendants than to defendants who show up with retained counsel.  Another conclusion is that clients who are able to purchase mitigation (expensive drug/alcohol treatment; sympathetic evaluations from high-dollar mental health workers) fare better than clients who can't buy such evidence.  

Hoffman himself believes the study proves that "marginally indigent defendants represented by the public defender tend to be guilty."  Based on this statement, a third conclusion to be drawn is that the sentencing disparity stems from judges who only extend the presumption of innocence to clients with enough resources to buy it, in the form of retained counsel.

A Public Defender Efficacy Study | 18 comments (18 topical)

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