"Officials tout dividends from regional public defender program," is a report from the today's Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. It's written by Logan Carver.
Two years ago, the office of the West Texas Regional Public Defender for Capital Cases was nothing but a dream.
Now, a year after Lubbock attorney Jack Stoffregen took the reins of the fledgling program, the office is providing financial savings and quality of representation beyond expectations.
"It's just amazing to see that it's not only done what we thought it would do, but I think the office has done more than I even envisioned," said David Slayton, director of court administration for Lubbock County.
The Lubbock-based office also has branches in Amarillo and Midland comprising an 11-person staff dedicated entirely to the defense of indigent defendants charged with a capital offense in which the state is seeking the death penalty.
The quality of defense exceeds anything Stoffregen was able to do in private practice and the office saves participating counties thousands of dollars on indigent defense.
Sixty-five counties have signed on to the program.
Those counties account for 64,000 square miles of West Texas, with a population base of 1.5 million people.
The office is funded by a grant from the Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense, but participating counties agreed to a five-year payment plan where the counties take on more and more financial responsibility until the office is fully funded by the counties in the fifth year.
Stoffregen moved into the office last November and began filling positions.
The office was fully staffed by the end of July with three attorneys, three mitigation experts, one fact investigator and two administrative assistants in the Lubbock office. There is an attorney in the Amarillo office and one in the Midland office.
The 11-person staff is currently handling 11 cases.
Earlier coverage of the office begins with this post.
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