In 1966, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Miranda vs. Arizona that criminal defendants were entitled to say nothing so as to not incriminate themselves, and they were also entitled to an attorney.

A question that has long lingered over that valuable right, though, is whether criminal defendants who are being represented by court-appointed attorneys are getting the best possible defense. Across the country, many public defenders are overworked and underpaid, working with caseloads that don’t allow them to spend much time on each case. In Pennsylvania, counties have been left to fund and oversee public defender offices, and it has resulted in many of them being starved of resources and manpower.

That’s the argument the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Pennsylvania puts forward in a lawsuit it recently filed in Commonwealth Court. It asserts that the current system leaves defendants without effective counsel and, according to an ACLU news release, “creates an inconsistent patchwork of counsel depending on the county in which a person is charged with a crime.”

The suit, which names Gov. Josh Shapiro and members of the General Assembly as defendants, was filed just as Pennsylvania counties are being awarded state money to support indigent defense. All told, Harrisburg is sending $7.5 million out to the commonwealth’s 67 counties to support their indigent defense offices, the first time it has ever done so.

The Shapiro administration is requesting the amount be boosted to $10 million in the 2024-25 budget, and Lt. Gov. Austin Davis has said that getting the funds out to counties is “no small feat.”

But critics say even the $7.5 million in state funds is not sufficient. They point to the fact that states, on average, spend about $19.67 on a cost-per-capita basis for indigent defense, while Pennsylvania only spends $10.25, even when the new state funding is included. When you look across the 50 states, only Mississippi, Hawaii, Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas spend less on indigent defense than Pennsylvania does.

When discussing the state money being put toward indigent defense, Shapiro said, “We need to do more to build equity in our criminal justice system, and a critical piece of that is sustained, dedicated funding for public defenders.” In the years ahead, Shapiro and his fellow lawmakers need to assure that funding actually meets the size of the need.

— Uniontown Herald Standard via AP