Indigent Defense Presented to the 2018 Annual Treasurers Conference - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Indigent Defense Presented to the 2018 Annual Treasurers Conference March 17, 2018 San Marcos, Texas Debra Stewart, dstewart@tidc.texas.gov Presen esentation tion Ov Over erview view 1. TIDC and the Fair Defense Act Mission, requirements,
Debra Stewart, dstewart@tidc.texas.gov Presented to the 2018 Annual Treasurer’s Conference
March 17, 2018 San Marcos, Texas
Gideon v. Wainwright, 373 US 335 (1963)
In our adversarial system of criminal justice…. With government “quite properly” spending “vast sums
accused of crime”.....you need ….. “procedural and substantive safeguard designed to assure fair trials before impartial tribunals in which defendants stands equal before the law” “This noble ideal cannot be realized if the poor man charged with crime has to face his accusers without a lawyer to assist him.”
eligibility
Consolodated Court Costs 62% State Bar Fee 6% Surety Bond Fee 6% Juror Pay Fee 16% General Revenue 10%
TIDC is funded through a combination of appropriations from the GR‐Dedicated Fair Defense Account (Fund 5073) and General Revenue. Funds accrue to the Fair Defense Account from the following sources:
Consolidated Court Costs Juror Pay Court Costs State Bar Fees Surety Bond Fees
$34,636,353 $36,631,856 $34,355,449 $32,459,944 $31,836,701
$29,000,000 $30,000,000 $31,000,000 $32,000,000 $33,000,000 $34,000,000 $35,000,000 $36,000,000 $37,000,000 FY 2012 FY2013 FY2014 FY2015 FY2016
County Expenditures State Investment Year Gross Expenditures (millions) Net Expenditures (millions) Annual Increase Total Grants Disbursed (millions) Grants as %
Expenditures 2001 $91.4 $91.4 ‐ $0.0 0% 2002 $114.0 $114.0 25% $7.2 6% 2003 $129.3 $129.3 13% $11.5 9% 2004 $138.3 $138.3 7% $11.6 8% 2005 $140.3 $140.3 1% $13.6 10% 2006 $149.0 $149.0 6% $13.8 9% 2007 $161.1 $161.1 8% $16.9 10% 2008 $174.2 $174.1 8% $21.0 12% 2009 $186.9 $186.4 7% $27.6 15% 2010 $195.1 $194.6 4% $27.5 14% 2011 $198.4 $197.7 2% $33.7 17% 2012 $207.5 $206.3 4% $28.2 14% 2013 $217.1 $215.4 4% $27.4 13% 2014 $229.9 $228.1 6% $44.8 20% 2015 $238.0 $235.6 3% $30.0 13% 2016 $247.7 $245.6 4% $32.2 13% 2017 $265.1 $263.3 7% $38.3 15%
[1] After county‐to‐county reimbursements for
regional programs.
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Prior to the passage of the FDA and the standards created by the Commission, some jurisdictions provided indigent defense under models that encouraged the processing of high volumes of cases with minimal effort from the defense, effectively undermining the 6th Amendment rights of many defendants. Since the FDA counties and the Commission are monitoring indigent defense more carefully and more counties have put in place systems that manage caseloads and include better oversight and accountability.
(a‐1) Not later than November 1 of each year and in the form and manner prescribed by the commission, each county shall prepare and provide to the commission information that describes for the preceding fiscal year the number of appointments under Article 26.04, Code of Criminal Procedure, and Title 3, Family Code, made to each attorney accepting appointments in the county, and information provided to the county by those attorneys under Article 26.04(j) (4), Code of Criminal Procedure.
Year 2001 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Texas 2017 Population (Non‐Census years are estima 1,415,441 1,798,959 1,827,782 1,862,634 1,913,559 Felony Charges Added (from OCA report) 16,504 16,216 17,033 17,390 19,049 279,474 Felony Cases Paid 11,861 11,471 12,018 12,907 14,173 212,428 % Felony Charges Defended with Appointed Counsel 72% 71% 71% 74% 74% 76% Felony Trial Court‐Attorney Fees $6,119,015 $5,505,151 $5,869,190 $6,319,008 $6,706,099 $123,500,620 Total Felony Court Expenditures $7,001,680 $6,304,696 $6,713,822 $7,416,526 $7,705,478 $141,042,744 Misdemeanor Charges Added (from OCA report) 41,657 44,180 37,680 33,379 33,848 473,896 Misdemeanor Cases Paid 25,266 24,557 23,346 21,257 22,864 217,002 % Misdemeanor Charges Defended with Appointed Counsel 61% 56% 62% 64% 68% 46% Misdemeanor Trial Court Attorney Fees $2,993,969 $2,714,628 $2,590,057 $2,359,564 $2,454,274 $43,271,420 Total Misdemeanor Court Expenditures $3,085,051 $2,801,449 $2,668,975 $2,452,551 $2,542,649 $44,143,098 Juvenile Charges Added (from OCA report) 2,596 2,455 2,578 2,269 2,510 29,152 Juvenile Cases Paid 2,479 2,809 2,658 2,622 2,480 39,635 Juvenile Attorney Fees $718,657 $713,087 $733,809 $746,131 $665,876 $11,386,741 Total Juvenile Expenditures $745,935 $757,341 $764,607 $762,369 $718,853 $11,967,965 Total Attorney Fees $4,850,994 $9,922,045 $8,975,205 $9,293,112 $9,603,095 $9,949,241 $183,294,600 Total ID Expenditures $4,908,882 $11,287,007 $10,279,857 $10,926,381 $11,967,299 $12,525,822 $265,131,386 Increase In Total Expenditures over 2001 Baseline 130% 109% 123% 144% 155% 199% Total ID Expenditures per Population $3.47 $6.27 $5.62 $5.87 $6.25 Commission Formula Grant Disbursement $1,213,140 $2,208,438 $1,317,622 $1,406,510 $1,840,359 $31,751,772 Costs Recouped from Defendants $1,258,453 $1,069,093 $779,559 $607,638 $414,118 $10,262,531
Texas Administrative Code
Grants provided under this chapter may be used by counties for:
related to the criminal defense of indigent defendants;
expert witness fees, lab fees, transcript fees, mental health evaluations, sociological evaluations, copying fees, or any other costs paid by the county to prosecute a defendant;
management systems, or court and administrative personnel unrelated to the provision of indigent defense;
reporting are not allowable. Counties that expend additional funds for transcription fees (statement of facts) on behalf of an indigent defendant’s appeal may claim the additional direct costs as “Other Litigation Expenses”;
“…invoices were for competency/psychological evaluations that were not readily determined to have been requested by the defense counsel. If these evaluations were requested by the defense counsel they are permitted however if they are requested by the judge or prosecuting attorney they would not be allowed as an indigent defense expense. Support that the expense is requested by the defense attorney should be
Generally speaking, experts requested and hired by the defense to conduct a psychological evaluation are considered eligible indigent defense expenditures and should be included in the Expert Witness sections of the IDER. Not all psychological evaluations of a defendant who is indigent are eligible,
eligible defense costs. To determine whether a psychological evaluation is an eligible indigent defense expenditure, auditors should determine if the expert fees in question were initiated through an ex parte motion by the defense. In such circumstances, the resulting reports would be privileged information provided only to the defense attorney. By contrast, psychological evaluations ordered by the court and which yield expert reports made available directly to the court or to all parties would not be counted as eligible indigent defense expenditures.