A brightly-colored seven-foot tall carnival-style wheel stopped outside the justice center in Syracuse Thursday to highlight what some are calling New York’s broken public defense system.
The prop is part of a traveling campaign with the New York Civil Liberties Union calling on Governor Cuomo to end 50 years of the state’s failure to provide attorneys to poor New Yorkers accused of crimes. The NYCLU’s Ujala Sehgal says the public defenders are overworked and ineffective.
Seven years ago, the NYCLU actually filed a class action lawsuit against the state, and it goes to trial in October. Onondaga County is one of four counties named in the suit, and the trial will be the first of its kind in the nation.
They’re asking the court to declare New York’s public defense system unconstitutional on the basis that the state does not consistently provide an attorney to those who can’t afford one. Sehgal says the problem isn't new.
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The NYCLU says 13 counties have passed resolutions asking the state to take over the public defense system, including Onondaga and the others named in the lawsuit.