Georgia Public Defender System On Trial

From The Los Angeles Times:

When Georgia instituted a statewide public defender system in 2005, human rights groups praised it as a milestone in ensuring that poor criminal defendants received their constitutional right to a fair trial.

Until then, counties determined how indigent people would be represented. In some counties, the courts operated like assembly lines, with defendants pleading guilty after talking with their appointed lawyers for a few minutes.

But some people accuse the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council, which runs the system, of spending too much time and money on indigent people. One defendant has provoked particular anger: Brian Nichols, the rape suspect accused of escaping from an Atlanta courthouse in 2005 and killing a judge, a court reporter, a sheriff’s deputy and a U.S. customs agent.

Nichols’ defense has cost $1.4 million, and the trial has not begun. Last week, Superior Court Judge Hilton Fuller postponed the trial until Sept. 10 because the public defender system had run out of money.

Almost all of the council’s 75 capital cases are on hold.

The Nichols case did not create the funding crisis. A technical glitch in state law left the council with a shortfall of about $10 million in the state budget.

But the Nichols case, as one of the most expensive death penalty trials in Georgia history, has exacerbated concerns about criminal defense spending.

Defense costs for the case are unpalatable to many Georgians, who point out that the evidence of Nichols’ guilt — which includes eyewitnesses and a videotaped confession — is overwhelming.

“A lot of people who opposed the new system are now saying, ‘I told you so — if you allow these people to have unbridled spending, the system will come to a halt,’ ” said Tom West, an Atlanta criminal defense lawyer.

The Georgia Legislature is debating whether to approve a request for $9.5 million to keep the public defender system operating until July, the start of the next fiscal year.