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Oh great! A wonderful development
(3)Public defenders’ office to begin refusing cases
The state’s chief public defender is asking judges to order the state Finance and Administration Cabinet to pay for private lawyers for poor criminal defendants because his agency can no longer afford to represent them.
In a letter to judges released Wednesday, public advocate Ernie Lewis warned that public defenders will begin refusing certain types of cases starting July 1 as a result of the $2.3 million budget cut approved this spring by the General Assembly.
Lewis said the Department of Public Advocacy cannot afford to fill about 40 vacancies. With caseloads already at unethically high levels, Lewis said, public defenders cannot take on additional cases.
“The dilemma that now exists is that the Commonwealth of Kentucky is obligated to provide counsel to poor people charged with crimes, but the legislature has failed to fund that obligation,” Lewis wrote. “DPA will assert that the solution to this is for courts to enter orders requiring the Commonwealth to pay for private counsel.”
The service cuts, and the request for the state to foot the bill for private lawyers, could lead to a constitutional showdown. And, as Lewis acknowledges in the letter, it could lead to sanctions for Lewis personally.
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3 Responses to “Oh great! A wonderful development”
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As much as I hate government spending on programs, I agree that all defendants have the right to counsel regardless of their ability to pay for it personally. And for the legislature to pretty much shoot itself in the foot by cutting funding to this program is just another example of bureaucratic idiocy. It will most likely now cost the people of Kentucky’s paid in tax dollars even more so than usual because of this decision by their great representatives. But don’t worry, those representatives will be just fine with a little wasteful spending. They already voted their raises in, along with perfect healthcare coming out of the same pool of money.
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Defendants need proper counsel. I’m not all that enthused on paying for someone to be locked for years and not actually be guilty. To me …. that’s idiocy.
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sherry May 29th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
To add insult to injury, Max & Mike, our prisons and jails here in Kentucky are bulging and breaking the budget. Still, the governor is trying to call a (costly) special session of the legislature, not to fix our sentencing laws, but to “fix” the state’s pension fund.
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