Public Defenders for Orleans Parish face serious problems
The most recent issue of the Gambit Weekly featured a profile on the state of Public Defense in Orleans parish. The system is underfunded, defense attorneys are overworked, and basic civil rights are at risk for individuals who cannot afford the high fees of a private attorney.
The Orleans Public Defenders office has partnered with AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps as a placement agency. AVODAH Corps member Eliza Baron currently works with OPD as a Client Welfare Specialist. The AVODAH placement saves the OPD thousands of dollars a year, while supplying a passionate, college-educated employee for an entire year.
The life of a New Orleans public defender
New Orleans public defenders face low pay, punishing caseloads and, now, uncertain funding. Is the Sixth Amendment, the right to legal counsel, becoming endangered in this city?
Orleans Public Defender Chant’a Parker has already been in her office an hour when she receives an 8:30 a.m. call from Armon Mosadegh, one of the 135 clients she’s currently serving. Mosadegh, 19, has been in Orleans Parish Prison for 29 days for a misdemeanor charge of marijuana possession. (”It was nothing but a little roach,” Parker says.) But Mosadegh doesn’t have the $50 to make bond, so there’s little she can do.
“You still have 16 days,” Parker tells her client. “I know that sucks,”
She is referring to the 45 days the district attorney’s office has to formally charge a defendant for a misdemeanor, or else release him, which is known as a 701 release. Parker originally tried and failed to get Mosadegh released on his own recognizance. Later that day, Parker will call the DA’s office to see if they’ll accept the charges so Mosadegh can be arraigned, get a trial date and be released. If that strategy fails as well, Mosadegh will have to wait out the 16 days and then Parker can file for a 701 release.
This is the kind of case with which Parker is presented all too often: minor drug violations that often leave indigent defendants in OPP, clogging the already-stressed legal system. Parker, 27, doesn’t seem harried, but the pressure on her is heavy and constant. Each day, Parker sees her share of humanity, much of it poor and in desperate need of legal help. Orleans Parish public defenders are trying to keep their heads above water, but individual caseloads are way beyond any reasonable expectations.
Now the state wants these public defense attorneys to do it for even less, but that could prove impossible in Orleans Parish’s fragile criminal justice system.
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