Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — With an ever increasing case load — both felony and misdemeanor cases — acting Public Defender Michael White plans to petition the governor to increase he number of attorneys with the Public Defender’s Office, which now has only two working attorneys, including White himself.

The nominee, who will also oversee the Public Defender’s Office, made the statement during his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing yesterday morning. He was later confirmed by the Senate in a 17-1 vote and now awaits the House confirmation process.

CONFIRMATION HEARING

At the start of the 30-minute confirmation hearing, White, who has been a lawyer since 1986 and is from Georgia, explained that he came to the territory in 2011 to work as Assistant Public Defender, and was appointed Public Defender — and confirmed by the Fono in 2018.

While the PD’s Office is supposed to have four lawyers, White said that currently there are only two attorneys, including himself, handling the entire case load for the office and that presents “problem for us” — the shortage of lawyers.

He hopes that when the COVID-19 travel ban restrictions are resolved, “we can get some more people here to help.” Later in the hearing, he told the committee that he has lawyers wanting to come down to work but are unable to do so, due to the travel ban.

White is thankful that the office has a “great support staff” of three people and one investigator. Two female support staff were in the Senate gallery observing the hearing and White publicly thanked the pair for their hard work.

“Public Defender work to me is the most rewarding type of work there is. Helping people who can’t afford to have lawyers, and basically our model in the office is to provide the best legal representation that money cannot buy,” he said, noting that “we have some challenges” which “we’re working through.”

Sen. Magalei Logovi’i — whether he was serious or not — made a recommendation that has been the subject of discussions in the community for a long time when it comes to the PD’s Office representing defendants who are charged with serious crimes — including those who abuse women or children.

The Tualauta senator’s recommendation to White, is that the Public Defender’s office, do not defend people who are “drug dealers”, those who abuse women and children. “Don’t represent them. Let them deal with the law,” said Magalei.

White responded that as an attorney, “I swore an oath and I take that oath seriously. I couldn’t do that as a lawyer — not defend them. I’d  be violating my oath. But I understand, as a lot of people feel that way.”

Magalei quickly added, “Let them find their own lawyer. They violate the law, [and] you have to defend them from our public funds.”

Responding to questions from Sen. Fonoti Tafa’ifa Aufata, the cabinet-nominee said that they handle about 300 felony cases and “double” that number for misdemeanor cases that are more common. As of yesterday, there are about 980 cases in court since the start of the year.

Sen. Satele Ali’itai Lili’o, a former Associate Judge of the High Court, informed White of an issue in court where juveniles are put in “restraints or handcuffs” when brought to court. And he asked if it’s the policy of the PD’s Office or government to handcuff a juvenile when taken to court.

“We’re talking about 8 years old up to 16 years old. And I saw the impact. That will impact the child for the rest of his or her life. I’m very concerned about that issue,” he said and asked White for his thoughts on this issue.

White responded, “Quite frankly, I’ve very troubled about that — bringing the 9 or 10 year old kid in the court with chains on. I do not understand that mentality. I’ve talked to the [court] marshals about it, but apparently that’s the policy with the court for security, that they have to have these people in handcuffs. I don’t agree with it. I just don’t see the necessity of handcuffing children that young.”

Satele Lili’o asked White to look into this “very important issue”, as to whether it is a government policy or a court policy to handcuff children when they are brought into court. “You’re the Public Defender and I think, it’s one of your responsibilities” to look into this, according to the senator.

Sen. Fai’ivae Iuli Godinet brought to White’s attention, an issue that has come out of the court — and also reported by Samoa News — of inmates having to wait for a very long time before their cases are even heard in court. Fai’ivae recalled the court referring to a case pending for five years before it even came before the court.

White said that he is “also troubled with” a case pending for five-years or more, and points out that “it’s just too long for somebody to be in jail without a trial, or a hearing.”

However, he pointed to several factors for the long delays, for example, since the COVID-19 restrictions, all jury trials were suspended since last year and “all those cases keep piling up.”

Another issue, is that “we have lawyers leaving unexpectedly,” he said, and gave a brief explanation of why two lawyers recently left and returned to the U.S. White said he will ask the governor for an increase in the number of lawyers for the PD Office — from four to five.

He also said that “a lot of times, we don’t get the information from the government in a timely manner. It takes them a long time to get us the information. Once we get it, we look at it, investigate it and unfortunately the wheels of justice are slow.”

“There’s so much at stake, we can’t afford to make a mistake when we’re dealing with people’s lives and their freedom. We can’t rush into things, particularly felony cases.”

“But don’t you think 5 years for a person sitting in jail waiting for their trail, is way, way too long?” asked Fai’ivae, who requested the PD’s Office to look into this issue.