For the defense

The General Assembly has the time in this long session, and ought to have the inclination, to provide funding and start-up money to establish independent public defender's offices covering all 100 of North Carolina's counties. Anything short of this would make justice uneven, and potentially unfair -- which is what it is now.

A review from the offices of State Auditor Les Merritt shows the state "falling short related to its responsibilities for providing independent, competent and adequate legal defense for the poor," Merritt said.

A couple of problems are obvious. First, the Office of Indigent Defense Services, which pays private lawyers appointed to cases, hasn't the means to oversee the appointments, monitor cases and respond to complaints. And the judges in noncapital cases help in the process of choosing the appointed lawyers (a roster of lawyers eligible for appointment is established where there is no public defender), assign them to cases and approve fees. The audit notes that lawyers should be free of judicial influence, and this formula doesn't ensure that.

The audit also says that in the 22 public defenders offices that do exist, senior resident Superior Court judges choose the defenders for their terms. Though all the judges and the lawyers involved in this system may be mindful, and keenly so, of the need to maintain distance and impartiality, it still isn't the best way to run the show -- and the audit says standards of the American Bar Association prohibit such a system.

This system, or partial system or whatever it should be called, is in need of an overhaul by lawmakers. First, set up a structure, then provide resources for all parts of the state to have public defenders. It's the only fair thing to do.