Indigent representation settlement hatched
2:23 pm, July 9th, 2010
A settlement has been reached in a class action suit on behalf of poor people accused of crimes in the Northern Judicial Circuit of Georgia who sat in jail for months without lawyers because the state slashed funding, but the issues opened up by the case are far from resolved.
In releasing the consent decree, Augusta Superior Court Judge J. David Roper also offered an analysis based on reviewing the case, including two days of hearings on it at the Elbert County Courthouse in March. “The Georgia indigent defense system is broken,” the judge said. “It is a mega bureaucracy adrift with no rudder.”
Roper blasted the system for a lack of accountability, effectiveness and organization.
The settlement sets guidelines for notice of cases where indigent defendants have conflicts with others being represented by the circuit public defender’s office.
Northern Circuit Public Defender Joel Shiver responded to the judge’s comments by pointing to the big picture. “The public defender system is working. We’re young. It’s a revolutionary concept, and it will take the support of far sighted individuals.”
A full story will appear on the Daily Report’s website tonight and in print on Monday.
–Katheryn Hayes Tucker
Contributor: Katheryn Hayes Tucker in Indigent Defense | subscribe to rss | 
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