“I have tried to fire my public defender”
Excerpt from an interview with Mark, a defendant in the Hall of Justice in San Jose, CA. Summer 2021.
Interviewer: And then, if you could change the court system in any -- in any way, what things would you change about it?
Mark: Um...uhhhh, the entire process. The due process.
Interviewer: Yeah. How so? What's wrong with it?
Mark: It's a little bit hasty in, uh, in making decisions.
Interviewer: Hmm. Have you seen any examples in your own case where it's been hasty?
Mark: Yes. I, um, previously I have tried to fire my public defender a few times and gone through a few Marsden motions and been denied on um...on no...really no ethical grounds at all whatsoever. And yeah, it was just, uh, completely -- it was completely ridiculous. And they'll uh...they'll pretty much set, like, if you try to do a Marsden motion, like, they'll set it the next week. And I mean, for you to prepare for your own Marsden motion in one week when you're incarcerated is completely...completely unacceptable. And there's no possible way that you could be ready for it unless you are...uh, you've been in law and studied it for...for a good period of your life.
Interviewer: Yeah, that's a -- that's a really good example. I'm wondering, your public defender, you know, why did you want to fire them? Was it because they weren't, you know, helping you with the motion --?
Mark: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Weren't doing anything. Weren't -- they weren't communicating with my, um, with my family members that I wanted them to communicate with. That was really the main reason. I really didn't have -- they really couldn't do much for me. I wasn't, um, I wasn't really upset with their, um -- how they were conducting themselves in court. It was just the lack of communication they -- they had with my, uh, with one of my family members that I asked them to communicate with.
Interviewer: Interesting. And then, your private lawyer right now that you've hired, are they doing a better job with that?
Mark: Yeah, they're doing, uh -- yeah, they're doing a good job.
**
Related research:
Clair, Matthew. "Being a Disadvantaged Criminal Defendant: Mistrust and Resistance in Attorney-Client Interactions." Social Forces 100, no. 1 (2021): 194-217.
Clair, Matthew. Privilege and punishment: How race and class matter in criminal court. Princeton University Press, 2020.
Moore, Janet, Vicki L. Plano Clark, Lori A. Foote, and Jacinda K. Dariotis. "Attorney–client communication in public defense: A qualitative examination." Criminal Justice Policy Review 31, no. 6 (2020): 908-938.
