"Equal justice for all” is a lofty ideal, but in practice it remains expensive, and, unfortunately, a work in progress for some of society’s most vulnerable citizens. One proposal from the Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, however, could go a long way in helping indigent defendants in Utah.

Prior to the Gideon v. Wainwright Supreme Court decision in 1963, defendants in court who couldn’t afford a defense attorney usually found themselves out of luck. In Gideon v. Wainwright the Court changed that when it found that indigent defendants had a constitutional right to an attorney, and that the state had a responsibility to appoint counsel when poverty made it impossible to secure adequate representation.

This was a landmark decision that many feel expanded the doors of justice to millions of people who would otherwise be crushed by the financial burdens associated with the U.S. legal system. While those burdens may be lighter now than they were 50 years ago, they’re still significant.

In Utah, elected officials acknowledge their constitutional responsibility to provide legal support for the indigent, but that responsibility has been borne primarily by the counties, which have a state mandate to provide legal counsel for those without sufficient financial means. The counties, however, struggle to find adequate funding to meet that responsibility.

The Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice is calling on the Legislature to provide $1.5 million in one-time funding to support indigent legal defense. This is a modest request. Indeed, Joanna Landau, the director of the Utah Indigent Defense Commission, was right when she described this as “a paltry, paltry amount relative to the state budget,” but she was also correct when she added that “it is not nothing.”

Given the relatively small size of the appropriation and the constitutional mandate it’s designed to fulfill, this is something that ought to be supported by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Sen. Daniel Thatcher, R-West Valley City, recently noted that the legal defense of the poor is “one of the things, in my opinion, that we are constitutionally obligated to do where we have fallen short, and so I think it’s very important we pay attention to this issue."

He’s right. A one-time appropriation of $1.5 million is likely to alleviate the immediate demands on the system, but going forward, this is an issue that will require a long-term plan. The Legislature is not meeting its obligations if it simply punts this problem to the counties without providing a way for them to pay the bills. Lawmakers at the county and state level need to make ongoing funding a priority. In the meantime, the Legislature should consider approving this one-time appropriation, which, while inadequate to the problem at hand, is still a step toward "equal justice for all.”

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