Woman was told by a public defender to plead guilty to a felony that wasn’t even a felonyThe Right to Counsel – A Woman Becomes a Test Case

The Right to Counsel – A Woman Becomes a Test Case

SHE was poor and in trouble. He was the public defender appointed to represent her.

She was Kimberly Hurell-Harring, a nobody in the courts, a nursing home worker and a mother of two who had done something stupid. He was Patrick E. Barber, a lawyer with a silver stubble of a beard, paid by the county and state to help make the criminal justice system as fair to the poor as it is to the rich.

At his urging, she pleaded guilty and went to jail for a felony that turned out not to be a felony at all. “It seemed like he was on the D.A.’s side,” she said later.

Full Story: The Right to Counsel – A Woman Becomes a Test Case – NYTimes.com.

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