David R. Steele of Covington, Kentucky took the helm as President of the Kentucky Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (KACDL) at its annual meeting held in Covington on Friday, November 21, 1997. The reins of the organization were passed to Steele from Jerry Cox of Mount Vernon.

The Kentucky Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is a state-wide organization. Its purpose is to foster, maintain and encourage a high standard of integrity, independence and expertise among member criminal defense attorneys; to strive for justice, respect and dignity for criminal defense lawyers, defendants and the entire criminal justice system consistent with the constitutional rule of law of Kentucky and the United States. For membership information contact Linda DeBord, Executive Director, 3300 Maple Leaf Drive, LaGrange, Kentucky 40031; Tel: (502) 243-1418.

As he assumed the reins of the organization Steele outlined his three leading goals: 1) to preserve the individual citizen's participation in our jury system which is now under attack by proposals expected to be before the General Assembly to eliminate sentencing by citizens serving as jurors; 2) Enactment of the racial justice act; and 3) Enactment of a moratorium on the imposition of the death penalty until assurances are in place that this most dreadful of penalties is imposed without bias, prejudice, without arbitrariness and caprice and after the issues addressed in the ABA moratorium on the death penalty are adequately addressed.

Steele also noted the desperate need for fairness, rationality and balance in Kentucky criminal justice policy.

The Attorney General DUI Task Force is an example of an unbalanced approach. Its recommendation comes from a panel which is over-whelmingly made up of prosecutors and police officers while denying the individual citizen or his representative any voice in the declaration of policy. Its recommendation to give an arresting police officer the right to automatically suspend a citizen's driver's license without court intervention smacks of a process presuming guilt. It is more consistent with processes previously attributed to totalitarian societies rather than to an open and democratic society.

The Governor's Criminal Justice Response Team recommendation to add additional aggravators to expand the imposition of the death penalty while failing to recognize additional extenuating circumstances (usually called mitigators) is not rational at a time when the American Bar Association, made up of a cross section of members of the American Bar (only a small percentage of whom practice criminal law), has recommended a moratorium on executions until we fix the problems with how death sentences are imposed. Instead of expanding crimes that can be prosecuted as capital offenses, laws need to be enacted that eliminate race and other biases and prejudices from the capital process and that prohibit the death penalty for children and to make Kentucky law that prohibits execution of mentally retarded individuals retroactive.

The Kentucky Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers must point out that the playing field is dangerously tilted in favor of the state against its people. The bumper sticker that states "I love my country but fear my government" has ominous meaning for criminal defense lawyers.

Kentucky prosecutors receive $53 million each year while Kentucky's defender system receives $17 million. This is a dangerous imbalance in available resources for the defense of the liberty of the common man.

We believe that the people of Kentucky want those who are true criminals to be accountable but the people of Kentucky want those decisions about a person's liberty done in a fair process coupled with integrity where competent and capable advocates are available to both sides in any proceeding. Our association has important work to do if we are to make these goals a reality in our lifetimes.
 

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