By: Hinojosa S.B. No. 780
(In the Senate - Filed February 22, 2013; February 26, 2013,
read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
April 18, 2013, reported favorably by the following vote:
Yeas 4, Nays 1; April 18, 2013, sent to printer.)
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the prioritization of certain available legal defense
services when appointing representation for an indigent defendant
in a criminal case.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subsections (f), (h), and (i), Article 26.04,
Code of Criminal Procedure, are amended to read as follows:
(f) In a county in which a public defender's office is
created or designated under Article 26.044, the court or the
courts' designee shall [may] appoint that office to represent the
defendant, except that the court is not required to make an
appointment under this subsection if:
(1) the court makes a finding of good cause on the
record for appointing other counsel; or
(2) a managed assigned counsel program also exists in
the county and an attorney will be appointed under that program [in
accordance with guidelines established for the office].
(h) Subject to Subsection (f), in [In] a county in which an
alternative program for appointing counsel is established as
provided by Subsection (g) and is approved by the presiding judge of
the administrative judicial region, a court or the courts' designee
may appoint an attorney to represent an indigent defendant by using
the alternative program. In establishing an alternative program
under Subsection (g), the judges of the courts establishing the
program may not, without the approval of the commissioners court,
obligate the county by contract or by the creation of new positions
that cause an increase in expenditure of county funds.
(i) Subject to Subsection (f), a [A] court or the courts'
designee required under Subsection (c) to appoint an attorney to
represent a defendant accused or convicted of a felony may appoint
an attorney from any county located in the court's administrative
judicial region.
SECTION 2. Subsection (c-1), Article 26.044, Code of
Criminal Procedure, is amended to read as follows:
(c-1) A written plan under Subsection (b-1) or a proposal
under Subsection (c) must include:
(1) a budget for the public defender's office,
including salaries;
(2) a description of each personnel position,
including the chief public defender position;
(3) the maximum allowable caseloads for each attorney
employed by the public defender's office;
(4) provisions for personnel training;
(5) a description of anticipated overhead costs for
the public defender's office;
(6) policies regarding the use of licensed
investigators and expert witnesses by the public defender's office;
[and]
(7) a policy to ensure that the chief public defender
and other attorneys employed by the public defender's office do not
provide representation to a defendant if doing so would create a
conflict of interest that has not been waived by the client; and
(8) a policy that establishes circumstances
constituting good cause under Article 26.04(f), such as attorney
caseloads at the public defender's office, the distance that an
attorney employed by a regional public defender's office would have
to travel if appointed to the case, or any other circumstance that
the commissioners court or courts consider appropriate.
SECTION 3. The change in law made by this Act applies only
to a criminal proceeding that commences on or after the effective
date of this Act. A criminal proceeding that commences before the
effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect when the
proceeding commenced, and the former law is continued in effect for
that purpose.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2013.
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