With funding from a federal grant, the Michigan Appellate Assigned Counsel System (MAACS) and State Appellate Defender Office (SADO) are working to make appellate investigation more accessible in criminal cases.
Officials say the just?launched Appellate Investigation Project (AIP) will extend investigative assistance to the 140 attorneys taking appellate assigned cases from MAACS, which maintains a statewide roster of private assigned appellate counsel. An AIP attorney and attorney/investigator will train roster attorneys, develop materials, and help one?on?one with issue spotting and development.
The AIP team will assist with investigations that may lead to testing of evidence, use of experts, challenges to the reliability of convictions obtained at the trial court level, and mitigation of sentences.
Training will be provided through SADO’s Criminal Defense Resource Center.
MAACS roster attorneys and their clients now face serious obstacles to investigating cases on appeal,according to a SADO news release.
Michigan’s 83 counties each fund appellate expenses, in contrast to the state funding that supports SADO.
MAACS attorneys must ask local judges to pay for investigators and experts when facts should be explored.
That funding, coming from local budgets, is often unavailable, according to state officials.
Some 2,500 cases, or 75 percent of the total indigent felony appeals, are handled each year by MAACS attorneys.
Nearly 20 exonerations have been obtained by SADO attorneys in recent years, according to the office, most due to post?conviction investigations.
The National Registry of Exonerations reports that of Michigan’s 55 exonerations of actually innocent people, 29 were achieved through more complete appellate investigations.
Appellate attorneys and investigators typically look for erroneous eyewitness identification, faulty forensic science or testing results, lack of investigation by trial counsel, false confessions, and involuntary or unknowing pleas.
The AIP seeks to provide necessary investigative services in more assigned appeals, while also assisting appellate counsel in establishing the need for locally?funded experts and investigators in appropriate cases.
Katherine Marcuz will serve as the principal attorney and Andrew Lee will serve as the investigative attorney of the AIP.
Marcuz has worked as an assistant defender at SADO while Lee has experience as a trial attorney at the Orleans Public Defenders in New Orleans.
The AIP team has developed a screening protocol, eligibility criteria, and policies that will ensure MAACS attorneys the greatest opportunity for access to the project, according to SADO.
Funding from the Byrne Justice Assistant Grant does not involve direct payment of expert witness fees, but the news release said the team will provide help with identifying and working with experts, and obtaining local funding for expert services.
Additional information on the project may be obtained at www.sado.org
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