Taxpayers to provide two more lawyers for Kilpatrick

Disgraced former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick will now get two more attorneys on his defense team at public expense in his federal trial for tax evasion and fraud. The Detroit News reports that the judge in his federal case — not to be confused with the state trial for probation violations, for which he is now in prison — authorized the hiring of the additional counsel last week:

U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds granted a motion Wednesday that allows for the hire of a secondary lawyer, Joseph Niskar, and Michael C. Naughton, who will provide technical support. They will join Kilpatrick’s lead defense attorney James C. Thomas.

The duo are being paid by taxpayers because Kilpatrick is unemployed, incarcerated, has no means of financial support and can’t afford lawyers, Thomas wrote in a court filing…

Edmunds said the hires were “in the interest of justice,” according to court documents.

And I’m sure they are. But shouldn’t the courts — and the legislature — be at least as concerned about providing adequate counsel to the average person who finds themselves in court and in need of a public defender? The formerly wealthy and powerful Kilpatrick gets three attorneys at public expense, while the city he presided over as mayor has a total of five part-time public defenders who handle an average of more than 2,400 cases per year.

For the average criminal defendant who needs a public defender, getting the court to grant additional resources is nearly impossible. Even getting to court is rare as the vast majority of such defendants are talked into pleading guilty even when they’re not because their overworked attorney doesn’t have the time or the resources to pursue an actual defense in court for their defendant.

I can hardly think of a more perfect example of the inequities in our criminal justice system.