Public defenders’ staff may be furloughed

From the Rome News-Tribune:

Without an infusion of cash from the state, Georgia’s public defenders face a one-month furlough this spring that could cripple the courts.

Members of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council voted on Friday to keep the system afloat by continuing to pay needed outside attorneys and expert witnesses. But to do so they’re using funds budgeted to pay staff salaries in June.

“This is a big gamble,” the council’s deputy director Sarah Haskin said. The council is counting on Gov. Sonny Perdue and the Legislature delivering $4.5 million in the supplemental budget for the fiscal year that ends June 30. If they don’t, lawyers who represent the state’s poor in criminal and death penalty cases will be furloughed - unpaid leave - until the new fiscal year starts July 1, council members said.

The state’s public defenders have been on the brink of a budget crisis for years. But the problem is particularly bad this year because of the soaring defense costs in the trial of accused Atlanta courthouse gunman Brian Nichols.

A memo from the council said the additional $4.5 million would fund the council’s needs, except for the Nichols trial. The council has cut off funding for Nichols’ defense, a move which has brought his trial to a halt.

The latest budget battle drew impassioned pleas on Friday from several council members who said the state’s public defenders have been victims of a chromic lack of support from the Legislature, which seemed intent on undermining their mission to represent the state’s indigent.

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