Rss@dailykos.com (josie Duffy) · Monday, November 30, 2015, 12:56 pm
Public defenders in New Orleans are looking for a little bit of mercy this holiday season. Many indigent defense offices nationwide suffer from chronic understaffing and underfunding. But the crisis is particularly bad in Orleans Parish, where both clients and public defenders are victims of budget cuts in an illogical funding system. Aljazeera America reports:
About 85 percent of people charged with a crime in New Orleans are represented by public defenders, because they can’t afford a private attorney. With more than 20,000 indigent clients a year, the Orleans Public Defenders office needs 70 lawyers and an $8.2 million budget to “protects its clients’ constitutional rights,” according to a 2006 American University report.
Yet while the office handles the vast majority of the city’s cases, it has about 50 lawyers and a $6.2 million budget. […] And the situation will likely get worse next year. Projected budget cuts of about $700,000 will further strain the defenders office, increasing case processing time, jeopardizing everyday court proceedings and potentially causing “constitutional crises” for the local criminal justice system, according to Orleans Parish public defender Derwyn Bunton.
It was Bunton who "made an unusual request for judicial mercy" last week when he asked a Criminal District Court judge to stop giving his office new cases until the understaffing crisis is fixed.
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