2020 First Extraordinary Session ENROLLED
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 20
BY SENATOR BARROW
A RESOLUTION
To establish a group to study and make recommendations regarding the feasibility of
establishing an optimal funding mechanism for the Louisiana Public Defender
Board.
WHEREAS, the Louisiana Public Defender Board was created and established as a
state agency within the office of the governor to provide for the supervision, administration,
and delivery of a statewide public defender system, which shall deliver uniform public
defender services in all courts in this state; and
WHEREAS, Article I, Section 13 of the Constitution of Louisiana of 1974, in
accordance with the state's obligation under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments of the
United States Constitution, provides that at "each stage of the proceedings, every person is
entitled to assistance of counsel of his choice, or appointed by the court if he is indigent and
charged with an offense punishable by imprisonment", and Section 13 further mandates that
the legislature shall provide for "a uniform system for securing and compensating qualified
counsel for indigents"; and
WHEREAS, in recognition of its mandates under both the United States and
Louisiana constitutions, it is the obligation of the legislature to provide for the general
framework and resources necessary to provide for the delivery of public defender services
in this state; and
WHEREAS, in 2007, the legislature enacted the Louisiana Public Defender Act to
provide for all of the following:
(1) Ensuring that adequate public funding of the right to counsel is provided and
managed in a cost-effective and fiscally responsible manner,
(2) Ensuring that the public defender system is free from undue political and judicial
interference and free of conflicts of interests,
(3) Establishing a flexible delivery system that is responsive to and respectful of
jurisdictional variances and local community needs and interests,
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(4) Providing that the right to counsel is delivered by qualified and competent
counsel in a manner that is fair and consistent throughout the state,
(5) Providing for statewide oversight with the objective that all indigent criminal
defendants who are eligible to have appointed counsel at public expense receive effective
assistance of counsel at each critical stage of the proceeding,
(6) Providing for the ability to collect and verify objective statistical data on public
defense workload and other critical data needed to assist state policymakers in making
informed decisions on the appropriate funding levels to ensure an adequate service delivery
system,
(7) Providing for the development of uniform binding standards and guidelines for
the delivery of public defender services and for an effective management system to monitor
and enforce compliance with such standards and guidelines; and
WHEREAS, the right to a public defender has been guaranteed to poor defendants
in criminal court since the landmark 1963 Supreme Court decision Gideon v. Wainwright,
but advocates say that right has been eroded by a lack of funding, which has led to a scarcity
of resources, staggering caseloads, and in some cases, the agencies have rejected clients
because they couldn't afford to defend them; and
WHEREAS, Louisiana funds representation for noncapital defendants through
legislative appropriations at the state level, supplemented by traffic tickets and other local
fines assessed by each defender district; and
WHEREAS, about eighty-five percent of criminal defendants in 2016 qualified for
a court-appointed lawyer and thirty-three of the state's forty-two public defender offices
started turning away cases they no longer had the resources to handle, arguing that whatever
legal assistance they could provide would be so ineffective as to violate the defendant's
constitutional rights anyway; and
WHEREAS, in 2016, the Louisiana State Public Defender was a defendant in the
federal case Yarls v. Bunton, which challenged the constitutionality of the Louisiana public
defenders' practice of placing indigent, noncapital defendants on wait lists for appointed
counsel due to chronic budgetary shortfalls, thus violating poor defendants' Sixth and
Fourteenth Amendments rights to a speedy trial and to assistance of counsel; and
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WHEREAS, in order to achieve full realization of the Louisiana Public Defender's
Act of 2007, requires thoughtful consideration by a group to study and make
recommendations regarding the feasibility of establishing an optimal funding mechanism
for the Louisiana Public Defender Board.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
does hereby establish the Louisiana Public Defender Board Optimal Funding Group to study
the feasibility of establishing an optimal funding mechanism to address funding issues of the
Louisiana Public Defender Board and to report all such matters to the Senate.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Louisiana Public Defender Board Optimal
Funding Group shall be comprised of the following members:
(1) The governor shall appoint three members.
(2) The chief justice of the Supreme Court of Louisiana shall appoint four members,
one member shall be a juvenile justice advocate, one member shall be a retired judge with
criminal law experience, and two members shall be at-large.
(3) The president of the Senate shall appoint one member.
(4) The president of the Louisiana State Bar Association, or his designee.
(5) The chairman of the Louisiana State Law Institute's Children's Code Committee,
or his designee.
(6) The chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, or his designee.
(7) The chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary B, or his designee.
(8) The state public defender of the Louisiana Public Defender Board, or his
designee.
(9) The chairman of the House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice,
or his designee.
(10) The chairman of the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, or his
designee.
(11) The chairman of the Foundation for Louisiana, or his designee.
(12) The executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, or
his designee.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the initial meeting of the study group shall be
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called by the president of the Louisiana Senate. The president of the Senate appointee shall
chair the study group and at its initial meeting, the study group shall elect other officers as
it shall deem necessary. The first meeting shall take place no later than September 15, 2020;
the Louisiana Senate shall provide staff support.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that members of this study group shall serve without
compensation, except per diem or expense reimbursement to which they may be individually
entitled.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a majority of the total membership shall
constitute a quorum of the study group and any official action by the study group shall
require an affirmative vote of a majority of the quorum present and voting.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the study group shall meet as necessary and shall
report its findings to the Senate not later than April 1, 2021.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
governor, the chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court, the president of the Louisiana
State Bar Association, the chairman of the Louisiana State Law Institute's Children's Code
Committee, the state public defender of the Louisiana Public Defender Board, the chariman
of the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the chairman of the Foundation
for Louisiana, and the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
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