Orleans Public Defenders

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Gideon 50 Years Later in New Orleans Symposium a Success

: News; 17 October 2013

Local and national experts convened at Tulane Law School September 6th for our first symposium: Race, Poverty and Public Defense: Gideon 50 Years Later in New Orleans exploring the history and future of indigent defense reform, community-oriented defense practice, mass incarceration and sentencing reform. Attendance was near capacity and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive, due in large part to the caliber of the panelists and dynamic discussion.

One attendee commented, "Never before has funding been so interesting," while one student is now seriously considering public defense as a career path.

OPD Spearheads Creation of New Prostitution Diversion Program in Municipal Court

: News; 17 October 2013

This April, OPD was selected to receive the American Bar Association (ABA) Criminal Justice Section's Racial Justice Improvement Project (RJIP) grant; the goal being to identify and reform policies practices that produce racial disparities in local criminal justice system. Four jurisdictions were selected for the two-year grant: Montgomery County, PA; Dane County, WI; Cook County, NC; and New Orleans.

OPD will work to development and implement a prostitution diversion program in New Orleans Municipal Court. A newly-formed Task Force is in the initial stages of establishing the elibility criteria and programmatic requirements of the program. Led by Jee Park, OPD's Special Litigation Counsel, the Task Force includes Chief Judge Desiree Charbonnet, Municipal Court; Cathy Broussard, Probation Officer, Municipal Court; Mark Burton, Supervising Attorney, Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office; Deon Haywood, Executive Director, Women With a Vision; Charlene C. Larche-Mason, Chief Deputy City Attorney; and Jacob McCray, LA Delta Service Corp Fellow as the Task Force coordinator.

OPD is the only organization to receive the grant for two consecutive grant cycles. Most recently, OPD worked with Andree Mattix, Director of Social Services, Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office, and other members of the Task Force, to create a second diversion program diverting nonviolent property offenders out of the criminal justice system and into a program focused on community service, restitution and GED attainment. ABA praised OPD's creative and effective collaboration with other criminal justice stakeholders to push for reforms and better outcomes in the criminal justice system.

Public Defense Still Essential in Mayor Landrieu's 2014 Budget

: News; 16 October 2013

Mayor Landrieu once again proved his commitment to a fair and balanced criminal justice system today with the continued funding of the Orleans Public Defenders (OPD) in his 2014 budget. While the general appropriation is a near $150,000 decrease, the additional $232,000 appropriation for defense in racketeering cases will hopefully help stave off further private bar pro bono representation needs for the mayor's Group Violence Reduction Strategy (GVRS). OPD's $940,000 appropriation remains significantly less than the NOPD, the Sheriff and the District Attorney.

"The mayor's continued support for OPD and public defense in New Orleans is another step toward a fair and just criminal justice system, and the additional GVRS appropriation is certainly a big part of that," said Chief Public Defender Derwyn Bunton. "However, the persistent resource disparity within the criminal justice system threatens an efficient, reliable court system and hinders our ability to keep up with the growing and complex demands our criminal justice system. Until OPD secures stable, reliable and adequate funding, we remain vulnerable to service restrictions."

OPD currently represents more than 80% of defendants in Criminal, Municipal and Traffic court. The implementation of sweeping multi-defendant indictments has brought court proceedings to a standstill as judges work to secure pro bono representation due to OPD's inadequate resources. Inconsistent and inadequate funding have always challenged OPD's operations, making the city's appropriation especially crucial to maintain efficient and effective representation in the face of increasing caseloads. When OPD cannot operate at full capacity, the entire criminal justice system falters, causing delays in justice for victims, defendants and the public.

OPD's Nzinga Hill Receives National NLADA Award

: News; 10 October 2013

New Orleans, LA – The Orleans Public Defenders (OPD) are pleased to announce our own Nzinga Hill is the recipient of the 2013 National Legal Aid and Defender Association's (NLADA) Reginald Heber Smith Award. Given since the early 1960s, Hill is one of just two honorees nationwide to receive the "Reggie" award recognizing the dedication and outstanding achievements of civil or indigent defense attorneys. Hill and the other 2013 NLADA national awards winners will be recognized at the Annual Conference November 8 in Los Angeles.

Hill is the supervising attorney of OPD's Child in Need of Care (CINC) unit, advocating tirelessly in Orleans Parish Juvenile Court to reunite families. Her representation is unparalleled and her dedication to improve representation for parents in CINC cases is determined.

Now Is the Time To Finish the Job on Criminal Justice Reform in New Orleans

: News; 08 October 2013

Chief Defender Derwyn Bunton on recent criminal justice reports, suggested shifts in resource focus, protocol changes and the need for resource parity.

"The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." (Jeremiah 8:20 King James Bible).

Eight years after Katrina, the need for criminal justice reform in New Orleans remains acute. New Orleans' criminal justice leaders and stakeholders must work intelligently and creatively to ensure justice and fairness within our courts and on our streets. With major and expensive consent decrees looming over the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) and the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office (OPSO), our city cannot afford to waste time recycling the failed and expensive policies of the past. As a community, we must continue to push forward in the right direction with criminal justice reform.

I disagree with a recent Court Watch NOLA report insofar as it declared a "Culture of Continuances" at Orleans Parish Criminal District Court (CDC). CDC now has a larger proportion of serious and complex criminal cases. These cases take longer to investigate and prepare. A fact noted by the Metropolitan Crime Commission's 2012 Judicial Accountability Report. In this context, declaring a "Culture of Continuances" illustrated a lack of understanding of the system.

At the same time, court administration deserves scrutiny because the system can improve the fair and efficient movement of cases. Criminal justice leaders and stakeholders need to move forward, exploring better uses of technology, perhaps integrating court calendars and reaching out to other systems for ideas to promote fairness, justice and efficiency. Unnecessary delays do drive up costs. However, hasty court proceedings are even more costly and lead to shoddy work on all sides, creating more victims and less justice.

NY Times: Federal Oversight on Public Defense

: News; 10 September 2013

The Justice Department recently signaled that it may be taking on a greater role in assuring the quality of indigent defense in state criminal systems. It filed a brief last month in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington against two towns for failing to provide adequate legal assistance for poor defendants.

The department's filing, reported byNPR, did not take a position on the merits of the plaintiffs' claim, but it starkly described what Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. has called the "state of crisis" in public defender systems nationwide. If the Washington plaintiffs prevail, the government's brief said, the court should appoint an independent monitor to help ensure that the two towns provide all defendants with effective counsel, a constitutionally protected right.

Mr. Holder has talked often about indigent defense, but because systemic problems traditionally have been dealt with at the state level, the federal government has maintained a limited role. That may be changing. State public defenders represent the vast majority of criminal defendants across the country, but, as the brief explained, they remain at a "staggering disadvantage" because of the resources that go to law enforcement and prosecutors' offices.

The disadvantage may be nowhere more glaring than in New Orleans, where indigent people sit in jail uncharged, sometimes for months, waiting for a lawyer whose workload far exceeds any reasonable standard. Professional guidelines recommend that public defenders handle no more than 400 misdemeanor cases in a year, yet a 2009 report found that part-time public defenders in Orleans Parish handled the equivalent of 19,000 misdemeanor cases per attorney annually — which means an average of about seven minutes spent by a lawyer on each case.

This terrible system is hobbled by a perverse funding mechanism. Traffic fines and court fees paid by defendants who are convicted or plead guilty account for nearly half of the annual budget of the Orleans Public Defenders Office. This is an unpredictable revenue stream, and it may also pose a conflict of interest since public defenders end up representing many defendants whose fines support their salaries.