Bill Would Revamp Public Defenders

    May 10, 2007
    The Advocate
    By Michelle Millhollon

    A House committee advanced legislation Wednesday that aims to create a more viable indigent defense system in Louisiana.

    House Bill 436 would create the Louisiana Public Defender Board to ensure that people who are arrested but cannot afford to hire an attorney can get adequate legal representation.

    HB436 would not fix all of the kinks in a bottom-of-the-barrel system but it would be an improvement, said Lake Charles attorney Walter Sanchez.

    “This is not a Cadillac system … It’s a reliable Ford,” he said.

    Eight of 10 criminal defendants in Louisiana require the state to appoint a lawyer.

    Currently, local boards in the state’s 41 judicial districts are in charge of ensuring poor defendants facing prison-time have attorneys.

    HB436 by Rep. Danny Martiny, R-Kenner, would abolish the local boards and replace them with a state panel.

    The board’s staff would include a state public defender, a training director, a juvenile defender services director and a budget officer.

    Martiny told the House Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice that the bill is the result of 17 drafts over a 16-month period.

    “I think everything but the kitchen sink’s in the bill,” he said.

    Martiny said the bill would put in place a procedure to remove public defenders who are not doing their jobs.

    The goal is to create an accountable system that convinces the Legislature the right to counsel should be high on its list of funding priorities, he said.

    National civil rights groups have charged the state’s system is so underfunded and poorly organized that the legal representation poor people receive at criminal trials fails to meet constitutional standards.

    “It’s a problem we need to fix and if we don’t fix it the courts are going to fix it,” Martiny said.

    Martiny said he wants to give legislators a scorecard of how public defenders are performing by district.

    “There is no way this state is going to fund indigent defense as it should be unless we get our act in order,” Martiny said.

    The bill would fold the statewide board already in place, Louisiana Indigent Defense Assistance Board, into the new system.



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