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| Expert: Public defenders need $25M more |
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| October 8, 2004 |
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BATON ROUGE — Louisiana needs to be spending at least $55 million on its indigent defenders system, some $25 million more than the $30 million-$32 million it is now spending, an expert said Thursday.
“That’s at a minimum,” David Carroll of the Washington, D.C.-based National Legal Aid and Defenders Association, told the Louisiana Task Force on Indigent Defense’s monthly meeting at the State Capitol.
Celebrity attorney Barry Scheck, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, warned the task force to expect more lawsuits charging that overworked and under-funded public defenders’ systems violate defendants’ constitutional rights to a fair trial.
Last month, such a lawsuit was filed in Lake Charles, and Scheck said a prominent national law firm is considering filing a similar suit in Avoyelles Parish.
“We have complaints from Iberia, Orleans, all across the state,” Scheck said, holding up a stack of folders. He also mentioned Rapides Parish.
“We’re just going to keep coming back,” Scheck said. “It’s time to get this job done and done right.”
State Sen. Lydia Jackson of Shreveport, who chairs the task force, said it would be cheaper and better if the task force comes up with recommendations the Legislature can adopt.
“A proper indigent defenders’ system is a cost-saving measure,” Jackson said. “There are costs in defending each of these suits. If any of the litigation is successful, we’ll still have to pay the costs for the court-ordered remedy.”
Carroll, who has spent the past 2 1/2 years studying public defenders’ systems in Louisiana, based his $55 million estimate is based only on what his organization knows about the caseloads and district attorneys’ office budgets in Louisiana.
At his suggestion, the task force’s committee on financing improvements will survey all public defenders’ offices to get a uniform caseload report and expenses, and compare that to prosecutors’ offices.
Ed Greenlee, director of the Louisiana Indigent Defense Assistance Board, told the financial committee that one area they might consider is requiring parish governments to provide free office space and utilities to public defenders’ offices, just as they do for district attorneys.
“That’s one way to come up with additional resources,” Greenlee said.
For example, the public defenders’ office in Baton Rouge, which is prosecuting accused serial killer Derrick Todd Lee, is some $750,000 in arrears on rental payments. The public defenders’ office rents space in a building owned by East Baton Rouge Parish.
The task force meets again in early November as it works towards the goal of presenting a plan for a new indigent defenders’ system to the Legislature in March. |
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| ŠThe Lafayette Daily Advertiser |
| October 8, 2004 |
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National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL)
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(202) 872-8600 • Fax (202) 872-8690 •
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