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122 Yale L. J. 154 (2012-2013)
How Much Difference Does the Lawyer Make: The Effect of Defense Counsel on Murder Case Outcomes

handle is hein.journals/ylr122 and id is 164 raw text is: JAMES M. ANDERSON & PAUL HEATON How Much Difference Does the Lawyer Make? The Effect of Defense Counsel on Murder Case Outcomes ABSTRACT. One in five indigent murder defendants in Philadelphia is randomly assigned representation by public defenders while the remainder receive court-appointed private attorneys. We exploit this random assignment to measure how defense counsel affect murder case outcomes. Compared to appointed counsel, public defenders in Philadelphia reduce their clients' murder conviction rate by 19% and lower the probability that their clients receive a life sentence by 62%. Public defenders reduce overall expected time served in prison by 24%. We find no difference in the overall number of charges of which defendants are found guilty. When we apply methods used in past studies of the effect of counsel that did not use random assignment, we obtain far more modest estimated impacts, which suggests defendant sorting is an important confounder affecting past research. To understand possible explanations for the disparity in outcomes, we interviewed judges, public defenders, and attorneys who took appointments. Interviewees identified a variety of institutional factors in Philadelphia that decreased the likelihood that appointed counsel would prepare cases as well as the public defenders. The vast difference in outcomes for defendants assigned different counsel types raises important questions about the adequacy and fairness of the criminal justice system. AUTHORS. James M. Anderson, J.D., is a behavioral and social scientist at the RAND Corporation, and Paul Heaton, Ph.D., is an economist at RAND. Many thanks to Marcy Bloomfield, Paul Conway, Richard McSorley, and numerous anonymous judges and lawyers with whom we spoke and who provided invaluable data and guidance regarding the functioning of the Philadelphia court system. Yair Listokin, Thomas Cohen, David Abrams, Eric Helland, Nicholas M. Pace, and several anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. We also thank Sarah Hauer, Marjorie Bowersock, and Alexandra Roth, and the team at the The Yale Law Journal for numerous edits and suggestions. This publication was made possible by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs Award Number 2009-IJ-CX-0013. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice. James M. Anderson worked as an Assistant Federal Defender in the Capital Habeas Unit of the Defender Association of Philadelphia from 1996 to 2004. 154

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