What Price A Fair Trial?

What Price Justice? Try 10 Cents a Page

Not only, as the adage says, does crime not pay -- it just got a little more expensive.

Until recently, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia was generous with criminal defendants -- most often providing them with free copies of documents exchanged in discovery, and demanding payment only in complex cases that involved thousands of documents.

Those days are over.

Facing yet another round of budget cuts from "Main Justice," the Philadelphia office adopted a "no-pay" policy in February.

Now a federal judge has upheld the new policy, finding it complies with the rules of criminal procedure and the U.S. Supreme Court's seminal 1963 decision in Brady v. Maryland.

In his nine-page opinion in United States v. Tyree, U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell found that Rule 16 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure imposes "no affirmative duty on the government to pay for copying."

Instead, Dalzell said, the rule requires only that prosecutors make documents "available for inspection, copying or photographing."

Likewise, Dalzell found that while Brady requires the government to "disclose" all exculpatory evidence to the defendant, the high court's decision includes no language that can be read as obliging the government to reproduce any records at its own expense.

The ruling by this judge now places a chilling effect and financial burden upon those accused of a crime that will, in at least some cases, create a burden of having the money to conduct a defense. We have seen how those with lots of assets and the ability to hire "dream teams" of lawyers (OJ Simpson, Robert Blake, Michael Jackson) already have an advantage and receive preferential treatment in our courts... now comes this ruling that will place additional burdens upon a financially strapped defendant. Given that the government (state and federal) has already cut funding for public defenders and legal aid assistance, there is an argument that this ruling goes against public policy and the interests of justice. Perhaps we need congress to pass a law that protects the right to discovery by allowing a waiver of the assessed copying and administrative costs upon legitimate petition... but we would have to insist upon clear rules and criteria. Certainly someone making over $100,000 per year should be able to pay the costs... But less than that, we should probably allow a waiving of the fees.... but wouldn't that then be a violation of the principle of equal justice for all? Perhaps we need to wiave the assessments completely.