Mobile, Alabama - For the past four months, representatives of Mobile's NAACP have been monitoring courtrooms at Government Plaza in an effort to determine whether the legal system is, in their view, fair to everyone, the organization's president, Jimmie Gardner, said Friday.Mobile County's court system gets a "five or six" on a 10-point scale, said Gardner, who also is assistant police chief in Prichard.
While short on specifics, Gardner said poor defendants, black and white, have it the worst. Gardner said he personally has known cases of court-appointed lawyers urging their indigent clients to plead guilty to crimes so the attorneys "just starting out" can get them out of the way.
Such untested attorneys don't have the resources of lawyers who represent the "haves," Gardner said.
Such untested attorneys don't have the resources of lawyers who represent the "haves," Gardner said.
Gardner said he personally has known cases of court-appointed lawyers urging their indigent clients to plead guilty to crimes so the attorneys "just starting out" can get them out of the way.
Since the NAACP program began, Gardner said, monitors in teams of two sat in on criminal and civil trials, and other hearings, particular in Circuit Court. Such untested attorneys don't have the resources of lawyers who represent the "haves," Gardner said. Judges in those courtrooms said they began noticing the visitors in April, who wore laminated identification cards or were dressed in bright yellow shirts signifying their affiliation with the civil rights group.
Since the NAACP program began, Gardner said, monitors in teams of two sat in on criminal and civil trials, and other hearings, particular in Circuit Court. Such untested attorneys don't have the resources of lawyers who represent the "haves," Gardner said. Judges in those courtrooms said they began noticing the visitors in April, who wore laminated identification cards or were dressed in bright yellow shirts signifying their affiliation with the civil rights group.
Part of the teams' purpose, Gardner said, was a simple show of force to defense attorneys, prosecutors, judges and other court personnel on behalf of the less fortunate, "that someone was out there, watching."
Gardner suggested that when it became known that the NAACP was there, "the whole attitude of the court changed."
