Examples of how public defenders are not the best source of counsel are found everywhere in the United States. Timothy Black, author of When A Heart Turns Rock Solid, highlights how a public defender can have little interest in his client. Black describes how one of the brothers, Sammy Rivera, in which his ethnography is centered around, had little faith in the public defender assigned to him. Sammy is a young, Puerto Rican man who lives in many places in New England, and has gotten involved in the drug trade. Both Sammy and Tim (who is a White professor) try to contact the public defender to talk to him about Sammy’s case, but they both fail to get a hold of him. Later when Sammy meets his public defender on the day of his trial, the lawyer says he never received any calls from Sammy, but did receive one from Tim. The public defender then tries to get Sammy to agree to a plea bargain. Sammy does not want to do this, and the public defender finally is able to negotiate the sentence awaiting Sammy to three years (Black 2009).
What this example highlights is how minorities, like Sammy, only have a public defender to help them navigate the legal system. Latinos and African Americans are more likely to accept plea bargains and other offers because they do not know they can proceed with a trial. Sammy was fortunate that he had Tim. Tim helped him navigate the system alongside the public defender.
http://www.amazon.com/When-Heart-Turns-Rock-Solid/dp/0307454878
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