Evening star., 1941-01-23
Bill Introduced
To Give D. {.
Public Defender
kefouver Measure
Offered as Bur Group
Announces Drive

Representative Kefauver, Demo-
crat, of Tennessee today introduced
q bill to give the District a public
defender system so persons too poor
to afford a lawyer in the criminal
courts may have counsel at public
expense.
Senator Capper, Republican. of
Kansas is planning to sponsor
similar legislation in the Senate.
Introduction of the bill came al
most simultaneously with an an
nouncement by the District Bar
Association that it is planning a
campaign to push legislation for a
public defender system in the present
Congress. The Kefauver bill was
referred to the House District Com
mittee, which will hold its first
meeting since convening of the new
Congress at 1890 am. Monday.
$1,000 Salary Proposed.
Briefly, the measure provides that
the President shall appoint the pub
lie defender and that the appointee
must have been engaged in the
actual practice of law before the
United States courts for the District
for at least five years. Maximum
salary fixed for the job is $1,000 a
year. Any assistants appointed by
the public defender would be al
lowed maximum pay of $4,000 year
each.
The bill also provides that the At
torney General shall exercise gen.
eral superintendent and direction
over the public defender as to the
manner of discharging his duties.
Francis w. Hill, jr., bar associa-
ton president, called upon the COM
munity, in a statement issued yes
terday afternoon, to support the Or
ganization in persuading Congress
to pass the necessary legislation"
He said that lawyers obviously
have nothing to gain from a de-
fender system except the satisfac-
tion of having thereby contributed
to the fairer and more economical
administration of justice"
Committee Working on Plan.
At work on the proposal is a
committee composed of Frederick
A. Ballard, chairman; James R.
Kirkland, John L. Laskey, James
F. Reilly, William J. Rowan and
John j. Sirica. In the last Congress,
the Capper and Kefauver bills, lock-
ing to the establishing of a public
defender system here, were intro
duced after being drafted by the
associatlon's committee and a COM
mittee of the organizations Board
of Directors, comprising Mr.. Hill,
Robert F. Cogswell and David A.
Hart.
Mr.. Hill, in his statement, said:
with the commencement of a
new session of Congress the Bar
Association of the District of Co.
lumbia plans to renew its efforts to
secure the adoption of a public de-
fender system for the District. Such
a system means that persons ac-
cused of crime and too poor to hire
a lawyer would be defended by
public defender who, with his staff,
would be highly qualified and
trained for such work.
Cites Crowded Docket.
"The experience of other cities
has indicated that a formal de-
fender Office leads to important
economies and greatly increased
efficiency in the administration of
criminal justice. The crowded
state of our dockets in the District
of Columbia demands that we at
least try this method from that
point of view alone.
1--WE, as lawyers, have no AK to
grind in sponsoring this legislation.
Our sole desire is to make a con-
tribution to the fairer, more eff
cient, and more economical admin
istration of criminal justice. In
that spirit we of the bar association
call upon all public-spirited citizens
and groups in the District to join
with us in persuading Congress to
pass this important measure"
Mr.. Hill declared the association
considers the present system of as
signing lawyers somewhat indis-
crlmlnately to defend the liberty
or even the lives of persons accused
OF crime is obviously archaic"