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Lawmakers must answer questions of justice

By ERNEST HOOPER
Published December 6, 2005

The aftermath of the Jennifer Porter and Debra Lafave cases has raised a lot of questions about the role that race, class and gender play in our legal system.

Left to be determined, however, is how we deal with those questions and who should provide the answers.

At last week's town hall meeting regarding the Porter case, defense attorney Barry Cohen asked where were Hillsborough County's African-American elected officials. In essence, he called them out, suggesting they should have been at the meeting and should be more vocal about the outcome.

Cohen, who defended Porter, contends that if black elected leaders spoke out about the facts of the case, the community's anger wouldn't be as great. People have been outraged ever since Porter received two years of house arrest, three years of probation and 500 hours of community service for leaving the scene of a March 2004 accident that killed 13-year-old Bryant Wilkins and 3-year-old Durontae Caldwell.

In his defense, state Sen. Les Miller, D-Tampa, was at another town hall meeting last Thursday regarding a manufacturing plant in east Tampa.

Naturally, he took exception to Cohen's assertions.

"I don't know why Barry Cohen would say that, because we're in the legislative branch and our powers don't cross over into the judicial branch," Miller said. "We can't make the judge change his mind, we can't reverse the plea deal.

"Above and beyond that, I have my staff looking into statutes to see if something can be done to prevent this from happening again ... to see if a law needs to be tweaked or changed."

It's a nice statement, but Miller offered responses only when asked. Neither he nor state Rep. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, have been terribly vocal about Porter's sentence. As an attorney, Joyner is the best-equipped African-American elected official to address the issue. She did not return telephone calls made to her law office last week.

I single out Miller and Joyner because they are the senior members, and because as state legislators they have the greatest potential to have an impact on the judicial system.

I don't necessarily fault them for not speaking about the specifics of the Porter case, and I won't say they are hiding from the controversy, as Cohen suggested. I can't pretend to know what is in their hearts.

However, the fact that neither Porter nor Lafave received jail time has prompted a lot of people, black and white, to shine the light on inequities in the system. Certainly, it's not unfair to expect them to use the current rancor to address those big-picture implications.

After all, some are certain that if Porter and Lafave were black, they would have received harsher sentences.

Others suggest that if the attractive Lafave, who pleaded guilty to two counts of lewd and lascivious battery last week after being accused of having sex with a 14-year-old boy, was a man guilty of having sex with a 14-year-old girl, she surely would have received jail time.

The common thread in both cases was that the defendants had well-connected attorneys with deep pockets. Contrast that with the fact that most defendants who are poor and/or of color are represented by a public defender, and you have a critical factor in the inequities.

Given all that I know about the Porter case, I believe if the driver was black and the kids were white, the sentencing would have been the same if Cohen was the defense attorney. The question is how do we narrow the gap between the kind of defense Cohen is capable of providing and the kind of defense a public defender can provide.

I don't question the intentions of the attorneys in the public defender's office, but there is no doubt that they are overworked and underpaid.

Gaining greater legislative funding for that office could help. Miller also suggested that more funding for judges could free up crowded dockets and lessen the system's dependency on plea deals.

Overall, this is an issue that demands leadership, and it's not too late. And while it's fair to start with black officials because that's where most of the outrage continues to bubble, this is a topic that goes beyond color. State Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, should lend his voice. After all, the accident occurred in his district.

And if there is any legislator who can gain more funding for the legal system, it's Senate President Tom Lee, R-Brandon.

Really, any legislator who cares about the poor and disenfranchised can join in the effort. After all, who isn't interested in lobbying for fairness?

That's all I'm saying.

--Ernest Hooper can be reached at 813 226-3406 or Hooper@sptimes.com

[Last modified December 6, 2005, 02:15:34]