Judge Halts Cases of 42 Suspects; He Rips State Funding of Indigent Defense


    April 19, 2007
    Times-Picayune
    By Laura Maggi

    In a ruling in which he chastised the state Legislature for continually failing to finance the state's public defender systems adequately, Criminal District Court Judge Arthur Hunter on Wednesday halted the prosecution of 42 poor criminal defendants in New Orleans and ordered the release of any who remained in jail.

    Lawyers involved in the case said the inmates would not actually leave Orleans Parish Prison on Wednesday, however, because the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal had previously issued a stay order on rulings Hunter makes in the consolidated criminal case, brought by the public defender's office to demonstrate it is unable to represent the clients effectively. That means the 4th Circuit would have to act before the inmates would be released, they said.

    As many as 30 of the defendants have already made bail and are out of jail, said David Pipes, a prosecutor with Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan's office.

    In his order, Hunter made clear that he believes the Legislature has repeatedly failed to address the problems of indigent defense in Louisiana, from the overall structure of the offices that provide legal representation for poor defendants to inadequate funding statewide.

    Although the state put up $20 million this year for public defense, $10 million more than in years past, the programs across the state are largely dependent on court fees for their operations. Critics have said this creates a system with widely disparate public defender offices, with some parishes that are well-funded and many that are not.

    The indigent defense system in Louisiana has been repeatedly denounced over the years for not providing the quality of legal representation for poor defendants mandated by the U.S. Constitution. The system has been criticized in Louisiana Supreme Court decisions, as well as in numerous reports.

    Noting that state government officials expect there to be a budget surplus this year, Hunter said they must address the funding shortfalls. Lawyers with the Orleans Indigent Defender Program have estimated they need an additional $2.1 million to hire enough lawyers to cover the cases adequately in criminal court.

    "The court can no longer hold hostage the constitutional rights of indigent defendants, hoping for reform legislation from a Legislature with a historical record for not adequately funding indigent defense," Hunter wrote in an order he read from the bench.

    Pipes said he plans to file a new appeal to the 4th Circuit. Before halting prosecutions and releasing defendants, Pipes said, Hunter must try to appoint private lawyers to represent the 42 defendants.

    164 clients

    Since Hunter issued his initial ruling three weeks ago about the same defendants, he has stopped appointing new clients to Powell Miller, the public defender who works out of his courtroom. Miller said in late March that he had a caseload of 164 clients, which was too many for him to provide effective legal representation. Miller determined he could provide quality representation to only 122 of them and selected the 42 defendants the public defender's office asked to be taken off his hands.

    But new criminal defendants have been sent to Hunter's courtroom since that time, which means there are 40 poor people accused of crimes who do not have attorneys.

    "It's not inadequate representation in these cases, it's no representation," Hunter said, saying he will hold a hearing soon on how to deal with those defendants.

    System changes sought

    During the Wednesday hearing, Hunter heard testimony from state Rep. Danny Martiny, R-Kenner, who said he plans to introduce legislation during the session that is scheduled to start April 30 to reshape the entire state system for providing indigent defense. The legislation would move to a more regionalized approach to public defense, he said, and eliminate local indigent defense boards that are appointed by local judges.

    Some critics have said allowing judges to appoint the local boards can lead to judicial interference in the system. In New Orleans, for example, some judges have chafed at changes made by the board that oversees the public defender office, while members of the board have complained that the judges should not try to influence how the office is run.

    Hunter first began considering complaints in his courtroom about the public defender system last year, when the system was still reeling from Hurricane Katrina. At that time, the public defender staff had been whittled down to few lawyers, as the court fees that finance the program dried up after the storm and the office was essentially broke.

    Over the past year, the program got back on its feet, receiving injections of temporary financing and implementing significant systemic changes under the guidance of a new board. But Hunter, backed by the public defender office, has continued to maintain that the caseload of the defender in his courtroom is unconstitutionally high.

    In recent hearings, Steve Singer, who in the fall was appointed trial chief for the New Orleans public defender office, testified that while the office has made significant improvements, it still needs more money to hire lawyers.

    Singer and other experts testified that before Katrina the public defenders offered inadequate representation, often with no investigation of a defendant's case and with lawyers agreeing to plea bargains shortly after meeting their clients. The office, which only employed part-time lawyers, kept no case files and had no computer system to track clients, Singer said.

    Board on its way out?

    Since a new board was appointed in April last year, the office has moved into a larger office so lawyers can talk to clients in private, converted to a full-time staff and implemented a case-management system. The office for the first time has also started providing training to the young lawyers who make up the bulk of the staff.

    It is unclear whether the board that oversaw the changes will continue past the end of this month. Chief Judge Raymond Bigelow has made it clear in letters to the board members and local bar associations that the judges intend to appoint a new board by April 27.

    By state law, the board members must be picked from nominations submitted by the local bar associations, which in New Orleans are the New Orleans Bar Association and Greater New Orleans Louis A. Martinet Legal Society.

    After both groups renominated the current board members, the court recently asked the associations for new nominees, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, the president of the New Orleans Bar Association, said in a phone interview.

    The bar association did submit five additional names to the court Wednesday, Barbier said, but it encouraged the judges to reappoint the current board. Barbier said the bar believes it is important that there is continuity on the board as it tries to make critical changes in the system.

    "We strongly urged them to maintain the current board so that reforms that have been started will continue," Barbier said. "I don't think they will dismantle the whole board, but if it happens, it would be a huge step backwards."



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