{"id":11852,"date":"2013-02-27T12:03:02","date_gmt":"2013-02-27T17:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.law.stetson.edu\/news\/?p=11852"},"modified":"2014-04-03T13:39:27","modified_gmt":"2014-04-03T17:39:27","slug":"the-road-after-gideon-stetsons-bruce-jacob-fights-for-the-rights-of-the-indigent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stetson.edu\/law\/news\/index.php\/2013\/02\/27\/the-road-after-gideon-stetsons-bruce-jacob-fights-for-the-rights-of-the-indigent\/","title":{"rendered":"The Road after Gideon: Stetson’s Bruce Jacob fights for the rights of the indigent"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As a young lawyer in his 20s working for the Florida attorney general in Tallahassee 50 years ago, a Stetson University College of Law graduate named Bruce Jacob was assigned to represent the respondent in a Supreme Court case that made history.<\/p>\n

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Bruce Jacob, professor and dean emeritus at Stetson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Court\u2019s landmark decision on March 18, 1963, regarding the right to a fair trial in Gideon v. Wainwright<\/em> was the impetus for the idea of public defenders. Jacob, now a professor and dean emeritus at Stetson University College of Law, was inspired to dedicate the next 50 years of his life to handling cases for indigent clients.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the decision in Gideon<\/em>, Jacob said he signed up as a volunteer public defender, one of the first in the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just thought it was the right thing to do,\u201d Jacob explained.<\/p>\n

After joining the faculty at Emory University School of Law in 1965, Jacob established the Legal Assistance for Inmates Program at the Atlanta Penitentiary. In just the first two weeks after its launch, more than 750 inmates approached the program for assistance. Jacob supervised the program and 53 students who volunteered to work on cases.\u00a0In 1969, Jacob took a federal prisoner\u2019s case to the Supreme Court and won the case for the petitioner in Kaufman v. United States.<\/em><\/p>\n

While studying at Harvard Law School, Jacob helped start the Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project. Through the Community Legal Assistance Office in Cambridge, Mass., Jacob supervised law students defending criminal cases and representing indigent people.<\/p>\n

Jacob fought for the rights of the indigent throughout his teaching career. He has taught 20 different law school courses over the past 48 years. Jacob currently teaches courses on constitutional law, administrative law, criminal law and criminal procedure at Stetson University, where he has received hundreds of letters from inmates and lawyers through the years requesting his expertise.<\/p>\n

Jacob is taking one inmate\u2019s case, the case of Dwight Roberts, to the Florida Supreme Court. That case involves a sentence that was imposed on the basis of an unconstitutional statute, Jacob said.<\/p>\n

Recently, Jacob also took the clemency case of Jerome Davis, referred to him by the Public Defender\u2019s Office. A non-violent offender, Davis was convicted multiple times for selling cocaine or fake cocaine and sentenced in 1991 to life in prison, the highest penalty allowed. Jacob estimated that the combined sum of money Davis made from all drug sales was $70 and that tax-payers have spent approximately $30K a year on Davis\u2019 prison stay over the past 20 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cSentences in the U.S. are longer than in any other country in the world,\u201d Jacob said.<\/p>\n

Jacob is asking Florida\u2019s clemency board to consider whether Davis\u2019 life-sentence fits his crime, the same sentence defendants convicted of sexual battery, child molestation, and murder have received. Ultimately, the state attorney general, Commissioner of Agriculture and governor will review the clemency application that he filed on May 30, 2012, Jacob said.<\/p>\n

One obstacle to shorter prison sentences for non-violent offenders like Davis, Jacob said, could be opposition from the prison industry itself, which supports employees who are caretakers of long-term prisoners. Another obstacle is the struggle to provide indigent people with adequate counsel.<\/p>\n

As we approach the 50th anniversary of Gideon<\/em>, Jacob said that public defender offices are underfunded and lawyers are overwhelmed with cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe justice system requires ethical prosecutors and solid defense lawyers,\u201d Jacob said \u201cWithout criminal defense lawyers, the justice system disintegrates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacob is appealing Dwight Roberts\u2019 case in April.<\/p>\n

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