A judge in New Orleans on Friday ordered that seven prisoners charged with crimes ranging from murder to aggravated rape be released from jail because there isn’t adequate funding for their legal representation, the most drastic sign of a growing public defense crisis in the city and throughout Louisiana.
The inmates, who are guaranteed a lawyer because they cannot afford their own, will remain in jail while prosecutors appeal against the judge’s decision.
In his order, Orleans parish judge Arthur Hunter Jr ruled the inmates be released and their prosecutions delayed, saying the lack of funding for their defense is a violation of the inmates’ sixth amendment rights and of the 14th amendment due process clause.
“We are now faced with a fundamental question, not only in New Orleans, but across Louisiana: what kind of criminal justice system do we want? One based on fairness or injustice, equality or prejudice, efficiency or chaos, right or wrong?” Hunter wrote in his order.
The seven men that Hunter ordered be released were initially assigned to public defenders from the Orleans public defenders office. In November, the office said it couldn’t take on any new cases because staff did not have enough resources to prepare adequate defense. The office began refusing some new cases in January.
Tulane law professor Pamela Metzger was appointed by the court to litigate the men’s constitutional due process rights, and private attorneys have been appointed to the men’s criminal defense cases. The attorneys don’t have money to investigate their clients’ cases and hire experts and pay for other costs that traditionally come with felony charges, Metzger said.
“We are very gratified that Judge Hunter had the courage and the integrity to stand in favor of the constitution and in support of the rights of poor people to the assistance of counsel and due process of law,” Metzger told the Guardian. She said the men were “cautiously optimistic”, in the wake of Hunter’s ruling.
Hunter wrote in his ruling that appointing private attorneys was not a solution to the lack of public defenders, saying that their appointment “without adequate resources to represent their clients makes a mockery” of the sixth amendment.
Five of the seven men have been awaiting trial for more than a year, and one of the men has been waiting for more than three years. Prosecutors told the New Orleans Advocate they would appeal against the decision within 10 days.
Metzger said she expected there would be similar rulings to Hunter’s in the future for other inmates awaiting trial.
“This is the logical end to not having resources to represent people,” said Derwyn Bunton, the chief defender of Orleans public defenders office.
Louisiana’s unusual system to pay for public defense relies largely on court-generated fines and fees, which causes a fluctuating source of funding, Bunton said. The Orleans public defenders office has seen its budget split in half during the last four years, leaving staff fewer resources and causing experienced attorneys to seek better-paying jobs elsewhere. Remaining staff are nearing or have reached their workload limits, which is why the office has referred roughly 110 people so far seeking defense to a wait list, Bunton said.He said the state need an entirely new structure for public defense funding to fix the current crisis.
Remedies to the crisis are unclear. State lawmakers are considering legislation that would grant more money to public defender offices throughout the state by taking it from defense teams of inmates facing the death penalty, according to the Times-Picayune. The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the Orleans public defenders office and the Louisiana public defender board over its refusal to accept some new clients.
