Category — Georgia

From the Macon Telegraph:

Defense attorneys were among the loudest supporters of Georgia’s ambitious public defender program, which for the first time created a statewide network of full-time attorneys to represent Georgia’s poor.

Which may explain why several of Georgia’s most prominent defense attorneys were in court Thursday, urging a Fulton County judge to prevent the ailing system from firing four full-time attorneys and replacing them with contract staff.

To those critics, the move could set an “unconscionable” precedent that threatens to undermine the program’s mission by slipping back to the much-maligned system of contract attorneys that once represented Georgia’s indigent.

“This is not about the right of lawyers to have a job,” said Stephen Bright, director of the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights. “It’s about the right of clients to be represented.”

But the system’s administrators, who have long argued that their hands are tied by budget cuts, say firing permanent attorneys and replacing them with private sector staffers is a necessary reality in a tough economy.

“It’s sad for the four lawyers who got laid off. It’s certainly unfortunate,” said Devon Orland, a state attorney. “But in this state, there’s no right to have a job.”

Fulton Superior Court Judge Melvin Westmoreland is expected to rule in the case next week.

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From the Florida Times-Union:

Georgia’s ailing public defender system, once praised as a national model for providing legal representation to poor defendants, is now in a legal tug-of-war with critics who say it has failed to live up to its promise.

Lagging support from Georgia legislators and rounds of budget cuts have already led the system’s director to scale back programs and fire dozens of staffers. But it was the decision in June to close the 21-member Metro Atlanta Conflict Defender Office that triggered the legal battle.

Critics sued the system’s director. They will ask a Fulton County judge today to force the office to stay open, arguing that the system is undergoing a “Walmartization” by firing full-time attorneys and replacing them with contract attorneys.

“This would be a giant step back to what is supposed to be a bygone era in Georgia,” said Stephen Bright, director of the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights, which filed the legal challenge.

It’s a painful fall for the public defender system, hailed in legal circles as groundbreaking when it was created in 2003 to replace the patchwork of systems across Georgia’s 159 counties.

To defense attorneys and their traditional Democratic allies, it was a progressive way to guarantee standard legal representation to Georgia’s neediest for the first time. It also appealed to Georgia’s ruling Republicans by offering a way to avoid what legal experts said could be a costly federal challenge.

Under the old system, some counties assigned indigent defense cases to attorneys with little experience or knowledge of criminal defense. And lawmakers heard horror stories about defendants waiting days - even weeks - before seeing an attorney.

Since the statewide system was established, however, frustrated legislators who worried about financial mismanagement have sought to rein it in. They cut funding from $42 million to $35 million over the past three years.

“Left unchecked, it will continue to grow into another unaccountable burgeoning state bureaucracy and the taxpayers will be left holding an empty bag,” said state Sen. Preston Smith, who chairs his chamber’s judiciary committee.

The budget cuts have forced some belt tightening. About 40 staffers were fired amid the first round of cuts in May 2007, and system director Mack Crawford - himself a former state legislator - warned he would have to furlough hundreds of staffers until a fresh infusion of cash came in this March.

Crawford has said he had little choice but to close the metro conflict office, which handles multi-defendant cases, and fire its 16 lawyers and five investigators. The council received $5.4 million from the state for conflict cases - a drop from the $9 million it spent last year on similar cases.

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From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

The state public defender council’s board voted Friday to delay by a month the closing of a metro defender office amid concerns its elimination will compromise legal representation of the poor and disrupt Atlanta’s busiest courthouse.

By a 9-1 vote, the board voted to shut down the 21-employee Metro Conflict Defender Office on July 31, but hire back seven of the lawyers who work there. The office won’t be closed until the lawyers are hired and a plan is in place to make sure the transition goes as smoothly as possible. The seven lawyers will work in Fulton County offices.

Last month, Mack Crawford, director of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council, ignited a firestorm of controversy when he announced the conflict office, which has 17 lawyers, would be closed on June 30. The board held its meeting Friday to either agree to that plan or figure out a compromise.

The metro conflict office costs $1.7 million a year to run and represents people in Fulton and DeKalb counties who cannot afford an attorney. The office’s lawyers represent co-defendants when conflict-of-interest rules allow a public defender to represent only one person.

Crawford said he had to close the office because of budgetary constraints that have hounded the council since it opened its doors four years ago. The council had asked the Legislature for $8.3 million for “conflict” cases, as well as for fees for expert witness, for the next fiscal year that begins July 1. But lawmakers approved $5.4 million.

During Friday’s meeting, held at the Lodge at Amicalola Falls State Park, the board agreed to move toward adopting a compromise that keeps some salaried defenders on payroll and saves the council $600,000.

Under the plan, six of the lawyers from the metro office will stay on and handle “complex” cases – the most serious felony offenses — in a dozen Fulton County courtrooms. An additional lawyer will handle juvenile cases.

Although the plan recommended that four private attorneys handle the less serious, non-complex cases on a contract basis, the board voted to try to find a way to avoid using lawyers who don’t work for the defender council.

The proposal was outlined to the council by Larry Schneider, the DeKalb Public Defender who is leaving that job at the end of the month to oversee conflict cases for the state defender council. DeKalb would receive $300,000 from the council to deal with its conflict case load, he said.

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From the Rome News-Tribune:

A civil rights group is trying to block the state’s public defender system from closing a 21-member office at the end of the month, which it says could leave as many as 1,800 defendants in the lurch.

The Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights filed a lawsuit Wednesday asking a Fulton County judge to block the closing of the Metro Atlanta Conflict Defender Office and the firing of its 16 lawyers and five investigators.

The lawsuit claims that public defender system director Mack Crawford had no plan for the 1,800 people who are now represented by the conflict office, which handles multi-defendant cases.

“Many of the people accused have been in jail since their arrests and now will remain there even longer,” said Stephen Bright, the director of the civil rights group. “Removal of their counsel is unfair and prejudicial to their cases. It is unconscionable.”

Crawford and other council officials did not immediately return requests for comment.

But he has said budget cuts forced him to close down the office, which handles multi-defendant cases. The council only received $5.4 million from state lawmakers for the next fiscal year — a drop from the $9 million it spent last year on conflict cases throughout Georgia.

“We’ve been told repeatedly, ’You need to live within this budget,”’ Crawford said Tuesday at a hastily called meeting on the firings, where he also vowed to arrange counsel for the office’s defendants.

“There will be no compromise for the representation of these clients,” he said.

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From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

The Georgia Legislature created a new statewide public defender system in 2003 to fulfill its constitutional obligation to provide an adequate criminal defense for indigents. However, there is a raging ideological debate between advocates and taxpayers over the meaning of an “adequate defense” that dramatically impacts the policy, structure and funding of the system.

Unfortunately, the Public Defenders’ Council has used its budget to usurp the policy-making authority of the Legislature by driving up the system’s costs and providing the best defense that money can buy. This limits the system’s availability and effectiveness and makes death penalty cases like Brian Nichols’ prohibitively expensive.

Since its inception, the state’s contribution has risen from 10 percent to approximately 40 percent of the total costs. Total expenditures for indigent defense in Georgia have reached $107 million, almost double the amount spent in 2000.

The recent downsizing of staff is not indicative of the failure of the Legislature to fund a system. To the contrary, it is evidence that the advocates have overbuilt a system which does more than required by the statutes.

The Council has built a system around the concept of maximizing the expenditure of available money rather than creating one that efficiently delivers the services called for by the Legislature. After perennially busting its budget, the Council manufactures a crisis and returns to the Legislature with threats of dire consequences if it does not receive additional funds. This strategy has the effect of forcing elected officials to increase funding or face a complete loss of a public service. It has resulted in a dramatic budget growth as compared with other state agencies.

Since 2005, state funds to the Council have increased 36 percent. In comparison, state funds to the Department of Human Resources increased 23 percent.

During the last legislative session, the Senate conducted a “zero-base budget” to determine the level of funding required for the system based upon what is mandated by statute. Even after repeated requests for the Council to produce a ground-up budget to justify their spending, they still refuse to do so, choosing instead only to criticize the Legislature without offering any alternative.

The Council and its staff have consistently misinformed the Legislature and the governor’s office.

Although they now acknowledge their mistake, the Council made a decision to declare a conflict of interest in a massive number of cases and outsource those cases to private attorneys, who bill the state by the hour for their services.

In fiscal year 2008, the Council came to the General Assembly with a midyear budgetary shortfall of $3.6 million. The Council very publicly insisted that this was due to the more than 9,045 pipeline “conflict” cases. While the Council was successful in convincing the executive branch and House of Representatives that these funds were needed, the Senate insisted on verification. Such requests went unanswered.

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From WGST:

Georgia’s public defender council is laying off 16 attorneys and five staff members to help deal with budget cuts.

The Georgia Public Defender Standards Council told the employees Friday that they would be cut June 30. That means nearly 1,900 defendants who can’t afford legal help will have no lawyer to represent them.

The affected employees were from the Metro Conflict Office, which helps with multidefendant cases. The council spent $9 million but was only allocated $5.4 million from the state this year.

Council director Mack Crawford says the group has been instructed not to go over its budget this year.

From the Providence, RI Examiner:

Three years after a deadly courthouse shooting rampage, the victims’ families have yet to see justice served, the suspect’s murder trial is mired in funding questions and appeals appear likely if the accused killer is ultimately convicted.

Brian Nichols sits in a jail cell, awaiting a murder trial that has been continuously delayed because of problems paying for his defense. Relatives of the four people Nichols is charged with killing on March 11, 2005, also wait for an end to a case that remains an unhealed wound for the entire Fulton County Courthouse community.

Judge James Bodiford - appointed only last month to replace the previous presiding judge - has moved swiftly to push the Nichols case forward. He was expected to announce Monday when he will resume the trial.

Experts have been hired to evaluate Nichols as part of his planned mental health defense and some of them will likely be called to testify at trial. The county has agreed to pay $125,000 for a mental health assessment for Nichols - but it is unclear if those funds will cover money past due to Nichols’ experts and money that will be due to them in the future.

“Judges can order lawyers to go forward, but you cannot order an expert to perform an examination and testify,” said Stephen Bright, president of the Southern Center for Human Rights. “These are private citizens. They generally in my experience do not work for free.”

Under an agreement between Nichols’ lawyers and the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council, approved by Bodiford on Thursday, the court found that the constitutional requirements for Nichols’ defense can be met with the revised trial budget, “subject to the availability of sufficient appropriations from the Georgia Legislature.”

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From The Albany Herald:

The House overwhelmingly approved legislation Tuesday aimed at preserving Georgia’s fledgling indigent defense system by reining in costs.
“This is a program that is worth saving,” Rep. David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, the bill’s chief sponsor, told his legislative colleagues. “But if we are to save it, it must be changed.”

Lawmakers approved the statewide network of public defenders in 2003 to replace a hodgepodge of local systems that had generated lawsuits charging some judicial circuits with failing to provide an adequate defense for indigent suspects. A year later, the Legislature funded the program and the system was launched at the beginning of 2005. Costs quickly mounted to the point that by this year, the system’s budget had grown to $107 million, double what the state and counties combined were spending on indigent defense just eight years ago.

To make matters worse, the system drew a ream of negative publicity over the Brian Nichols case. Although the alleged Fulton County courthouse gunman has yet to go to trial three years after the multiple murders, the tab for defending him has hit nearly $2 million. The legislation, which passed 141-21 and now heads to the Senate, is designed to reduce state taxpayers’ burden for defending poor people accused of crime by shifting more of the costs to counties and to the defendants themselves.

Under the legislation, the state would cover the entire bill for only the first $150,000 of the cost of a death penalty case. Beyond that, counties would have to pick up part of the tab.

Also, the measure changes the income-eligibility limit to qualify for a public defender from 125 percent of the federal poverty level down to 100 percent of the poverty limit.

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From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Fulton County Courthouse rampage suspect Brian Nichols may lose one of his state-funded attorneys if Georgia officials get their way at a hearing Thursday.

Mack Crawford, head of the Public Defender Standards Council, was in court Tuesday trying to persuade the new trial judge to dismiss attorney Jacob Sussman of North Carolina to save money. The council, which pays for the representation of poor and capital defendants, would use existing staff to help the defense team, led by North Carolina legal heavyweight Henderson Hill.

Superior Court Judge Jim Bodiford said he will issue a ruling during a hearing Thursday. At that time, the judge also vowed to set a trial date —- and to stick to it. The case involving the March 11, 2005, shooting deaths of a judge, court reporter, sheriff’s sergeant and federal customs agent has been delayed for three years due to defense complaints that they need more money in addition to the $1.5 million they have received. Nichols has pleaded not guilty.

Crawford insists the council has faced its own budget cuts and is tapped out. And, he has pointed out, Nichols has four lawyers, more than most death penalty defendants, who are allotted two attorneys.

Three of Nichols’ attorneys were making more than the state average of $95 an hour until one of them voluntarily reduced his fee. A fourth attorney is volunteering her time and only requires reimbursement for expenses. Crawford also has argued that the $1.5 million the defense team has spent is more than four times the average cost of a death penalty defense in Georgia. Hill disputes this amount, but doesn’t want to release documents detailing what his team has spent and on what.

“If Mr. Nichols had funds and was independently wealthy and could provide counsel, none of these issues would be litigated in open court,” Hill told the judge. “The world has no need to know about this prior to trial.”

The judge has released documents showing that Nichols’ attorneys spent about $47,000 on hotel expenses from June through December 2007. That doesn’t include meals, gas expenses and attorney fees. The judge was responding to a request by a legislative committee. The committee initially requested the information on defense expenditures due to concerns about the five trial delays.

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Former public defender Sherri Jefferson’s conviction and sentence of 30 days’ imprisonment was reversed by Georgia’s Supreme Court in a decision published yesterday.

Supreme Court Presiding Justice Carol Hunstein, writing for the court’s majority, said the old standard that Georgia judges had been given by the court to consider contempt had resulted in too many inconsistent decisions.

“Thus, because vigorous advocacy is essential not only to the preservation of individual rights but also to the integrity of the judicial system whose truthseeking process is sought to be protected through the exercise of the contempt power, courts must be judicious in their approach to adjudicating contempt,” Hunstein wrote. “In considering whether to hold an attorney in contempt, the court should always assess whether there are other correctives sufficient to address the problematic conduct in question.”

Still, contempt cases are rare, according to Stephen Jolly, Brunswick district attorney. No one prosecuted Jefferson, though Jolly participated in the appeals, arguing against her. But he said the old standard was fuzzy from his point of view. “We were a little frustrated ourselves in the vagueness of the contempt standard,” he said, adding that most lawyers are well-behaved but do appreciate knowing what the boundaries are as they are standing up for their case.

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From The (Macon, GA) Telegraph:

The funding roller coaster continued for Georgia’s public defenders on Tuesday as a key Senate committee slashed their budget to just a fraction of what they had sought to stay afloat.

The midyear budget that passed the Senate Appropriations Committee contained just $513,000 for public defenders to get them through the June 30 end of the fiscal year. Gov. Sonny Perdue had recommended $3.6 million.

“We still believe they have sufficient resources to meet their needs,” Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson, R-Savannah, told reporters.

The move continues a tug-of-war over dollars between the legislative and judicial branches that’s been exacerbated by the high-profile case of Brian Nichols, which has ground to standstill because of a dispute over funding for his defense.

While none of the additional state cash would go to the trial of accused Atlanta courthouse gunman, the case has become a lightening rod and emboldened some who believe the state’s indigent defense lawyers - funded by court fees - are driving up costs unnecessarily.

Sen. Preston Smith, who oversees judicial branch spending, has suggested that death penalty opponents are trying to put an end to capital punishment in Georgia by placing the price tag out of reach.

But officials with the Public Defender Standards Council have said they are wrestling with a jump in capital cases. They warned that without additional state funds they could be forced to furlough their lawyers and support staff for the month of June, bringing the court system to standstill.

House Majority Leader Jerry Keen said Tuesday that far from putting the brakes on capital cases, the additional state funding was needed to allow them to move forward. He called the Senate action “a huge blow to the ability of prosecutors to begin prosecuting these capital cases.”

“This money was to get those trials moving,” the Republican from St. Simons Island said.

There was no immediate comment from the Public Defender Standards Council.

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From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

The trial judge in the beleaguered death penalty case of Fulton County Courthouse rampage suspect Brian Nichols announced Wednesday he is removing himself from the case.

Superior Court Judge Hilton Fuller’s decision came just one day after he was quoted in an article on the New Yorker’s Web site about why Nichols plans to use a mental health defense: “That’s their only defense, because everyone in the world knows he did it.”

Fuller said Tuesday he didn’t recall making the statement and he had agreed to talk with the New Yorker reporter, Jeffrey Toobin, on background without direct quotes. Toobin, a former prosecutor who is now a senior legal analyst for CNN, responded by saying that the conversation was “clearly on the record.”

Fuller sent a letter Wednesday to Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Doris Downs announcing that he would step down.

“Judicial impartiality, real or perceived is a critical element of the trial process. … Whether I was accurately quoted is immaterial. What is material is the perception created by that attribution. For that reason, I hereby recuse myself from further proceedings in this case.”

The quagmire just got a bit stickier. Read the entire story.

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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From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

The state’s public defender system once again appears headed toward a budget crisis.

At its Nov. 30 board meeting, the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council will be given two options to deal with an anticipated funding shortfall. One option is to stop paying private attorneys who are defending more than 9,000 criminal cases across the state at the end of this year.

This option risks shutting down a large part of the defender system and sparking litigation over funding issues. Funds are also running out for about 30 death-penalty cases.

The second option is to transfer $2.7 million already budgeted to pay the public defender workforce in June to cover the costs of defending those cases in the coming months. But if the General Assembly does not give the council a midyear cash infusion, the defender system will have to furlough its 398 state-salaried workforce next June. The council’s staff is recommending the board take this route.

The defender council’s funding predicament is laid out in internal documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution through the Open Records Act.

“We’re taking it one day at a time,” the council’s director, Mack Crawford said Tuesday. “We do have problems and we’re doing all we can to work with the governor, the Legislature and the state’s judges to try and get through this.”

Henry County Superior Court Judge Arch McGarity said the state judiciary is aware of the problem.

“There are certain judges who are concerned about it,” said McGarity, who heads the Council of Superior Court Judges. “The primary concern is death-penalty cases.”

The statewide public defender system, now in its third year of operation, replaced a hodgepodge of uneven, underfunded and overwhelmed county-run programs providing legal representation for poor people accused of crimes. A state Supreme Court commission found that inadequate representation in the prior system heightened the chances of innocent people being convicted. But the new system has struggled due to budget cuts and a steady drain of legal fees and expenses — already more than $1.2 million — for the defense of accused courthouse killer Brian Nichols.

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From The Associated Press:

Lawyers for a man charged with murder in a rampage that started in a courtroom urged the state Supreme Court on Thursday to reject prosecutors’ efforts to replace them and the judge overseeing the case.

The trial of Brian Nichols, accused of killing the judge in his rape trial and three other people in 2005, has been put on hold by Superior Court Judge Hilton Fuller because the state public defender’s office says it has no more money for an effort that already has cost $1.8 million.

District Attorney Paul Howard has sued Fuller, asking the Supreme Court to order the judge to replace the outside attorneys appointed to represent Nichols with staff attorneys from the defender’s office. He also wants the high court to order that jury selection resume, and questioned whether Fuller should be removed from the case.

Nichols’ lawyers said in their filing that prosecutors and the court agreed to the four attorneys representing Nichols, and that there is no reason to remove them now. They added that removing them would “decimate the Sixth Amendment right to counsel,” for Nichols and for other indigent defendants.

The defense said Fuller has done nothing to warrant being removed from the case, and they noted most of his rulings have been in favor of prosecutors.

Nichols’ lawyers said Howard’s filing “is nothing more than a blatant effort to discharge a judge whose rulings and management of an ongoing criminal proceeding he dislikes, and to remove a defendant’s attorneys whose insistence on adequate funding for the defense function he cannot countenance.”

Howard filed a supplement to his lawsuit Thursday, saying there is no reason not to grant the relief he is requesting, because Fuller has stated he does not plan to file a response to the suit and the state attorney general has declined to represent Fuller, citing a conflict of interest.

The high court has yet to agree to hear the lawsuit or schedule any hearings.

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