POOR PRISONERS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 142, 13 December 1933, Page 15

POOR PRISONERS

PROVISION FOR DEFENCE

LAW EXTENDED

. The Poor Prisoners' Defence Bill, introduced into the House of Eepresentatives last evening, extends the provisions of the existing law ij. respect of the defence of persons unable to engage counsel on their own behalf. In explaining the Bill, the Minister of Justice (the Hon. J. G. Cobbe) said that it was an amendment to section 132 of the Justices of the Peace Act, 1927, which gave prisoners in poor circumstances who were charged with a criminal offence the right to apply for counsel. However, under the Act the prisoner had that right only if he set out his defence in writing with his signature attached. That document was available to the Crown Prosecutor and that fact placed the prisoner at a disadvantage, as the prosecutor then knew the nature of the defence. On the other hand, a prisoner who had means could engage- counsel in the ordinary way and did not have to disclose his defence until lie was-called on to answer the charge. Under the present Bill it was proposed to give a prisoner in poor circumstances the right to have counsel assigned to him without his having to disclose his defence. A similar law had been passed by the British Parliament, and when the measure was before the House of Commons it had been stated that under the old law there was one law for the rich and another for the poor. The expense of engaging counsel was to be met out of the Consolidated Fund. Mr. F. W. Schramm (Labour, Auckland East) said that he would have liked the Bill to have gone further, as the provisions outlined by the Minister still provided one law for the rich and another for the poor. The poor man should have .the right to choose any lawyer who was available, instead of having a lawyer assigned to him. Such a provision would ensure that the prisoner had a competent lawyer instead of some persons who was only gaining experience. In many cases of that nature the prisoner got "time" and the lawyer got a small fee. Mr.. P. Frascr (Labour, WellingtonCentral): Whereas it should have been tho other way about. 1 Mr. Schramm said that, ho knew of a case iv Hamilton where a lawyer had beau engaged for a poor prisoner, and ha had not made the best of the case. After the prisoner had been found guilty and sentenced, he turned to his lawyer and said, "You have made such a mess of the case- that you should be going to gaol instead of me." The Prime Minister (the Bt. Hon. G. W. Forbes): Perhaps wa could put that in the Bill. Mr. Sohramm said that there should be some means whereby a prisoner was able to select counsel. It was unfair that he should be assigned counsel. The Bill was read- a first time.