Crisis in Georgia Indigent Defense

Kathryn Kase sent this item from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Public defender chief quits; says courts should be told the truth."

The head of the state capital defender office said Friday he will resign because there is not enough money in the budget to adequately fund the representation of death-penalty defendants.

In a letter sent Thursday to the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council, Chris Adams said the council should "tell the truth" to the courts about the lack of resources and halt all capital proceedings until there are enough resources for the office's lawyers to do their jobs.

"We must have the type of resources that allow us to get the job done," Adams wrote. "The current budget does not."

Because the public defender council does not support his position, Adams said, he will step down. The council was created by the Legislature four years ago to oversee representation for people unable to afford their own lawyers. The statewide defender system replaced a patchwork of county-run programs widely criticized for their inability to adequately represent many defendants.

Since Adams became director of the capital defender office in 2005, the office has enjoyed a remarkable success rate in a state where support of capital punishment runs high.

None of the 35 cases resolved so far by the office resulted in a death sentence. All but four of these cases were resolved by plea agreements reached with prosecutors before they went to trial, saving the state and counties large sums of money in court costs and fees for attorneys and expert witnesses.

And:

In his letter of resignation, Adams said he was recently rebuffed by the defender council when he submitted a $10.5 million budget request for next year. Instead, the council approved a budget of only $4.3 million. That is about $3 million less than the capital defender was provided two years ago and, in the meantime, its caseload has continued to rise.

Earlier coverage of indigent defense issues in Georgia is here and here.