Standard:

Public defender offices, assigned counsel, and private law firms holding contracts to provide representation for poor people accused of crimes should employ investigators with criminal investigation training and experience. A minimum of one investigator should be employed for every four attorneys.

Related Standards:

American Bar Association, Standards for Criminal Justice, 4-4.1 and 5-1.14.

National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals, Task Force on Courts, 1973, Standard 13.14.

National Legal Aid and Defender Association, Standards for Defender Services, Standard IV-3.

National Legal Aid and Defender Association, Guidelines for Negotiating and Awarding Indigent Defense Contracts, 1984, Standard III-9.

Seattle-King County Bar Association Indigent Defense Services Task Force, Guidelines for Accreditation of Defender Agencies, 1982, Guideline Number 8.

Commentary:

Criminal investigation is an essential element of criminal defense; indeed, the failure to provide adequate pre-trial investigation may be grounds for a finding of ineffective assistance of counsel. All too often it is neglected because attorneys lack the time to conduct their own investigation of the facts of a case or because their office does not employ an investigator.

If the defense attorney must personally conduct factual investigations, the financial costs to the system are likely to be greater. When an attorney personally interviews witnesses, the attorney may be placed in the untenable position of withdrawing from the case in order to take the stand to challenge the witnesses' credibility if their testimony conflicts with statements previously made.

When the defense conducts an independent investigation of the facts, the results can be dramatic -- missing witnesses may be brought to the attention of the police, new evidence may be uncovered, and an innocent person may be cleared of charges. In nationally publicized cases, citizens have been wrongfully convicted and imprisoned because the defense did not adequately investigate the circumstances surrounding the case against the client.

Effective pre-trial investigation may benefit the criminal justice system by eliciting information which makes a costly courtroom confrontation unnecessary.