CARSON CITY -While the nation has been celebrating the 50th anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright - the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that guarantees indigent defendants the right to competent legal counsel - a new study indicates the milestone is not cause for celebration in rural Nevada.
The study, "Reclaiming Justice," commissioned by the Nevada Supreme Court's Indigent Defense Commission, concludes that there are serious deficiencies in the ability of rural Nevada counties to meet the Sixth Amendment requirements of the Gideon decision.
In rural Nevada, indigent defendants may sit in jail for several weeks or even months waiting to speak to an attorney while witnesses' memories fade and investigative leads go cold, the report noted.
Nevada Supreme Court Justice Michael Cherry is calling for a state-funded public defense commission to oversee and administer all right-to-counsel services outside Clark and Washoe counties. The state's two most populous counties were not the focus of the study because they have public defender offices and sufficient numbers of attorneys for court appointment.
"Nevada's rural counties simply cannot shoulder the state's obligations under the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution any longer," Justice Cherry said. "The financial burden will only increase as the U.S. Supreme Court continually clarifies and expands the obligations an attorney owes the indigent accused."
"We need to fix this problem now," said Justice Cherry, who chairs the Supreme Court's Indigent Defense Commission.
The study will be presented by the Commission to the Nevada Supreme Court, which will consider its findings and recommendations in a public hearing. Interested parties will have the opportunity at the hearing to comment on the study and provide other input.
According to the Nevada Association of Counties, rural counties are stretched to the financial breaking point as they work to provide competent legal representation for indigent defendants. The situation is only going to worsen as a growing number of people qualify for public defense lawyers as a result of the current economic climate.
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