Nevada lawsuit alleges weak public defense system forces guilty pleas for poor, rural defendents

"Poor people who get charged with crimes in rural Nevada are getting cheated in court by a cash-starved public defense system that assigns lawyers who don't have enough time or resources to mount strong cases, the American Civil Liberties Union said in a lawsuit Thursday," John Schuppe reports for NBC News.

The lawsuit says that court-appointed lawyers are overworked and paid flat fees, which makes them less motivated to meet with clients and do their due diligence by closely reading the cases, challenging high bail amounts or hiring investigators when needed. That means low-income defendants, who are more likely to need public defenders, are more likely to sit in jail for long periods of time before trial, which pressures them to plead guilty even if they are innocent. The ACLU says the current system violates defendants' constitutional rights of due process and assistance of counsel; the lawsuit names three rural plaintiffs who say their public defenders pressured them to accept plea bargains without spending much time reviewing their cases.

Nevada is a mostly rural state, and most counties must fund most of their own indigent-defense systems.

"The lawsuit accuses the state of Nevada and Gov. Brian Sandoval of failing to address the problem, despite years of studies documenting it ─ and proposed legislative remedies. In June, Sandoval approved the creation of a commission to study indigent defense. But, as the lawsuit pointed out, it has no power to force any changes," Schutte reports. "A spokeswoman for Sandoval called the lawsuit 'disappointing,' saying the governor had worked with the state Supreme Court, legislature and advocacy groups on the issue. The spokeswoman, Mari St. Martin, said Sandoval, a Republican, had signed a law creating a "rural judicial district" that provided "greater access to justice for many living in rural communities."

The ACLU has filed indigent-defense lawsuits against the states of Idaho, Missouri, and Utah, along with counties in California, Washington, and Pennsylvania, and the Louisiana parish that includes New Orleans. "The action in Nevada is part of a broader push by civil rights groups to challenge what they see as the criminal justice system's discrimination against America's poor," Schutte reports.