ASSIGNMENT OF CASES TO A DIVISION ONLY AFTER CHARGING IS A SYSTEMIC FAULT IN ORLEANS PARISH

Criminal Court judges in Orleans Parish went back to an antiquated "assign when charged" allotment system last month after only three months of more typical allotment by time of offense.  Both the District Attorney and the Public Defender had supported immediate allotment as a basis for assigning lawyers to prosecute and defend, avoiding one of the hallmarks of Crim Justice in the Crescent City: DELAY.   Squabbling about who had more cases than whom lead the judges to scrap the plan and go back to waiting for a charge before a section assignment.  2/17/12

SELECTION COMMITTEE SENDS THREE NAMES FOR 22ND JD DEFENDER POST

The retirement of long serving John Simmons is imminent, and a selection committee has sent three names to the Louisiana Public Defender Board for selection of a new District Defender: John Lindner, Dwight Doskey, and Kevin Linder will be interviewed for final selection by the state defender board.

Simmons was a leader in Criminal Justice for a lifelong career recognized by the La Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers several years ago for historic devotion to the Right to Counsel.  The professional portion of his 76 years is full of work on not only the improvement of indigent defense, but many of the very offices now serving clients were part of his career, including New Orleans and the three 22nd JDC Parishes.  He announced his retirement earlier this year.

The Picayune quoted Simmons as saying "I think they'll be sorry, they'll have a lot on their plate."   2/17/12

OPD GOES FOR PRO BONO PUBLICO

HUNTER ISSUES ORDERS APPOINTING PRIVATE BAR TO CRIMINAL DEFENSE

21 lawyers and 7 staff left OPD on February 16th, and a WVUE Law Reporter was appointed to represent in a criminal case, as the Orleans Public Defender shrinks to meet the size of its funding.  The cuts include capital defender contracts.

One lawyer, professionally an author, "thought it was a clerical error", but without the funds, Louisiana Law provides the public defender can rely on appointment from a bar list, just as Judge Hunter has started doing.  2/17

FUNDING CUTS FORCE ORLEANS PD TO RESTRICT SERVICES

CAPITAL COUNSEL LOSE FINANCES AMIDST JURY SELECTION

Funding shortfalls, including loss of over a million dollars from the City of New Orleans, have unraveled the services plan for the criminal defense in Orleans Parish.  Lawyers picking a jury at Tulane and Broad are told they will not be paid, and a trial judge says they will continue to work.     

The restriction of services comes after OPD lost support of the city, which relies on appointed counsel in hundreds of municipal cases.  The state fund remains about 10 million dollars under its requested funding, and OPD reports it simply cannot fund all of the obligations of criminal defense under the circumstances. 

 Meanwhile, in the weird world of Orleans, the DA suggests, contrary to well established law, that a person's ability to post bail should deny appointed counsel.   The proposed policy seems to be you have to stay in jail or forfeit the constitutional right to counsel.  The state underestimates fees in any event.

LACDL members should check in at the member gateway for more information.

The risk here is that the private bar will be tasked, as they now seem to be in Orleans, with "representation without compensation" under a scenario where the courts and state government continue to refuse funding for the public defenders.   1/16

ORLEANS D.A.'s TOLD: EXCULPATORY EVIDENCE STILL MUST BE SURRENDERED

COURT REJECTS ARGUMENTS ON PROSECUTOR CULPABILITY BUT IMPOSES NO SANCTION

In Smith v Cain, U.S. Supreme Court #10 8145, a near unanimous Supreme Court rejected Louisiana's proposed watering down of the adversary system and again holds the state must surrender favorable evidence to the defense.

In typical fashion, the state argued that the eyewitness impeachment, consisting of prior inconsistent statements, was not covered by Brady.  Argument relied on a magical version of trial evidence, in which the state argued there was plenty of reason to believe the eyewitness, and the failure to provide the impeachment was inconsequential.  The U.S. Supreme Court, with Chief Justice Roberts writing, rejected the argument with only Justice Thomas dissenting.

Louisiana again finds that it's state remedies were inadequate, and the case is reversed on Post Conviction after all the state reviews affirmed the conviction.  SCOTUS notes the various theories posited by the state, that the jury "might" have believed the testimony, were too weak to affirm the conviction in light of the plain Brady violation.

This all arises as the Louisiana Law Institute considers a statutory provision in the nature of the JENKS ACT, which would require by law that the prosecution release such materials to the defense without any litigation.  LACDL is working to propose a Louisiana Jenks Act but so far the district attorneys are less than enthusiastic, preferring to take their chances in a court system that requires the defendant to go all the way to Washington to enforce basic principles enshrined in Brady vs Maryland.