ATLANTA - Without an infusion of cash from the state, Georgia's public defenders face a one-month furlough this spring that could cripple the courts - and Gainesville attorney Wyc Orr points the finger of blame at the state Leigslature.
Members of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council voted on Friday to keep the system afloat by continuing to pay needed outside attorneys and expert witnesses. But to do so they're using funds budgeted to pay staff salaries in June.
"This is a big gamble," the council's deputy director Sarah Haskin said. The council is counting on Gov. Sonny Perdue and the Legislature delivering $4.5 million in the supplemental budget for the fiscal year that ends June 30. If they don't, lawyers who represent the state's poor in criminal and death penalty cases will be furloughed - unpaid leave - until the new fiscal year starts July 1, council members said.
The state's public defenders have been on the brink of a budget crisis for years. But the problem is particularly bad this year because of the soaring defense costs in the trial of accused Atlanta courthouse gunman Brian Nichols.
A memo from the council said the additional $4.5 million would fund the council's needs, except for the Nichols trial. The council has cut off funding for Nichols' defense, a move which has brought his trial to a halt.
The latest budget battle drew impassioned pleas on Friday from several council members who said the state's public defenders have been victims of a chromic lack of support from the Legislature, which seemed intent on undermining their mission to represent the state's indigent.
"They are trying to bleed us out of existence," council member and Gainesville attorney Wyc Orr said.
Orr said he wanted to stop deferring to the Legislature and instead send them a letter demanding full funding to fulfill their constitutional duty.
"I think we have to complain loudly," Orr said. "We have become a whipping boy of the Legislature."
Board chairman Wilson DuBose and executive director Mack Crawford pushed through a less confrontational approach aimed at winning lawmakers over.
"My own approach is to ascribe to them a measure of good faith," DuBose said.
Crawford, who served in the Legislature before taking the reins at the council, said political sentiment was not on the side of public defenders in light of the public spat over the Nichols case. That's especially true in an election year, he said.
"We're not the favorite child," he said.
The council also considered solving its budget crunch by starting rolling furloughs of staff immediately or stopping payment of outside lawyers and experts. Outside "conflict" lawyers must be hired when there is more than one indigent defendant in a case. Conflict-of-interest laws prevent the state from representing both defendants.
Marshall Guest, a spokesman for Perdue, said the governor was in the midst of the budget process and wouldn't be making final funding decisions until January.
Thursday
January 23rd, 2025
4:11PM
