Capital Region Ecumenical Organization
Albany United Methodist SocietyAmerican Baptist Churches,Capital Area AssociationCapital Area Council of ChurchesCatholic Charities,Diocese of AlbanyEpiscopal Diocese of AlbanyEvangelical Lutheran Church inAmerica, Hudson Mohawk Confer-enceFocus Churches of AlbanyInterdenominational MinistersConference of the Capitol RegionPresbyterian Church, USAPresbytery of AlbanyReformed Church in America,Classis of AlbanyRoman Catholic Diocese of AlbanySchenectady Inner City MinistryTroy Area United MinistriesUnited Church of Christ,Hudson-Mohawk AssociationUnited Methodist Church,Troy ConferenceCoordinator,Misha Marvel
102 Arrow Wood PlaceMalta, NY 12020518-729-0278
mishamarvel@gmail.com
Website pages hosted byAlbany Presbytery (PCUSA):
www.albanypresbytery.org
Memorandum of Support of A 8793/S 6002The Public Defense Act of 2009The Capital Region Ecumenical Organization supports the passage of Bill A.8793/S.6002, The Public Defense Act of 2009, as well as the estab-lishment of the Independent Public Defense Commission proposedwithin this bill.
CREO is a Christian expression of a number of faith groupsand faith-based organizations in our region. Over the past decade, we havestudied and raised our voices on issues of criminal justice in several areas of concern, including stopping the inhumane practice of Single Housing Unitsin state prisons, promoting alternatives to incarceration and prisoner reentry programs, urging the Cities of Schenectady and Troy to form a Gun ViolenceTask Force, as in the City of Albany, and most recently, seeking diversity inthe NYS Supreme Court and challenging the way in which Supreme CourtJudges are selected.We who follow Jesus’ commands to care for the poor and imprisoned need toinsist that our criminal justice system work as equitably as possible. Thecourt systems are where we meet and treat many of the poor in our soci-ety. These individuals are often unable to receive adequate defense beforetribunals except through the public defense system.Under the current system, cost and/or political agendas other than qualityrepresentation of defendants unduly affect the delivery of public defense ser-vices. Public Defenders are subject to undue pressure to keep costs down, or to quickly dispose of cases, and, as a result, they may not spend sufficienttime in preparing a case, or consult with experts who may be critical at vari-ous stages of the proceedings. They may be unduly pressured to pursue plea bargains when a properly prepared case might lead to a finding of innocence.Clergy and chaplains who minister to incarcerated men and women haveheard many stories of five minute interviews between assigned defense andtheir clients, barely enough time to meet the defendant, much less prepare a proper case. Some of these cases have come to our attention because theyhave been shared with the clergy by the frustrated lawyers or judges. Manyclaims of innocence may be justified. Public safety is not served by the cur-rent state of our public defense system.The need for improvements to the public defense system in New York Statehas been well documented by Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye’s Commission onthe Future of Indigent Defense Services. That Commission called for wide-spread reform including an independent commission to oversee public de-fense services and a fully and adequately state-funded, statewide public de-fense system. While the Public Defense Act of 2009 would not fully imple-ment the Kaye Commission recommendations, it does address the need for creation and enforcement of public defense standards, by empowering the
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