Retired attorney leading state justice system committee
Published: March 13, 2010
Robert DeGostin is chairman of a new state Legislative Task Force on Criminal Justice. The task force will examine fairness in the system.
By Leslie O'Malley Little Rock correspondent
Last year the state legislature passed Act 766, which created a task force to examine equity in the state criminal justice system. On Feb. 15 the members of task force unanimously elected Robert DeGostin, a parishioner at Our Lady of the Holy Souls Church in Little Rock, to lead the group as chairman.
Gov. Mike Beebe appointed DeGostin to the new Legislative Task Force on Criminal Justice as a representative of religious and ethical organizations. DeGostin was recommended to the governor by Bishop Anthony B. Taylor.
Sister Joan Pytlik, DC, former social action director for the Diocese of Little Rock, suggested DeGostin to the bishop based on previous work they did together on social action committees.
"For me, most importantly, he's very well grounded in the Catholic theology of criminal justice," she said. "He also has experience with every level of the criminal justice system."
In one of his first positions DeGostin worked as an assistant attorney general representing the Arkansas Department of Correction. He also served as a senior adviser on criminal justice for Governors Bill Clinton and Jim Guy Tucker. He retired as the general counsel for the Department of Correction in 2008.
"I thought I could be of use because I had a lot of experience with the criminal justice system," he said.
In addition to his legal background DeGostin has a master's degree in theology from Loyola University in New Orleans, and he volunteered as a certified religious assistant to help the chaplains at the Department of Correction.
State Sen. Joyce Elliott of Little Rock sponsored the act to address questions on fairness in the state's justice system.
"A significant number of Arkansans have voiced their deep concern that the system works for those who are more socially and economically privileged while those less fortunate don't fare as well," she said.
"While many have opinions, the task force should deal in fact-finding and evidence verification," she said.
Sen. Elliott believes DeGostin is the right person to chair this task force.
"He is a respected, thoughtful, quiet leader who is widely considered to be knowledgeable about Arkansas's criminal justice system," she said.
According to the act, the task force's mission is to examine both the original criminal charges filed and sentences for convictions involving Class Y felonies, Class A felonies and capital punishment. During this examination the task force should note the age, gender, race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status of both the victim and the person charged with the crime.
The task force would then report its findings and its recommendations by Aug. 15.
Class Y felonies, such as kidnapping and first-degree murder, carry punishments of 10 to 40 years or life in prison. Class A felonies, like first-degree sexual assault and first-degree domestic battery, carry punishments of six to 30 years in prison. Capital crimes carry punishments of life in prison or the death penalty.
"Our mission is to see if the system is being administered fairly," DeGostin said.
DeGostin referred to statistics from the inmate population at the Department of Correction, which is approximately 50 percent black, 47 percent white and 3 percent other groups. The state population in general is 18 percent black.
"There may be good reasons, there may not," he said. "We need to look at the evidence and come to some sort of conclusion."
Although one member of the task force is David Rickard, chairman of the Arkansas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, DeGostin said the issue of a moratorium on the death penalty probably wouldn't come up this early in the process.
"We're looking at it to see if it's administered fairly, not if it should be administered at all," he said.
The task force met a second time on March 1, and will meet again in three weeks, before going to a monthly meeting schedule until their report is due in August.
The task force has run into one obstacle -- the evidence they need to examine is not readily available.
"For some you'd have to go to the courthouses and pull it by hand," he said.
For this reason the group plans to have a statistician at its next meeting "to help determine the least amount of data we would have to collect and still be able to make reliable findings," he said.
"Instead of looking at all the judicial districts, we may choose five or six and draw conclusions from a limited sample," he said.
