Louisiana courts are so strapped for public defenders, civil attorneys are used for criminal cases
Due to a state-wide funding crisis, there are only 22 public defenders to handle more than 18,000 cases in Louisiana’s Caddo Parish, which contains Shreveport, the state’s third-largest city. Civil attorneys are being tapped to fill in the void, despite the fact that many have no experience doing criminal law.
Some have told the court that they don’t know enough about criminal law to represent the indigent defendants, but for the most part the concerns are ignored, the Marshall Project reports in a series about the situation. Similar problems exist in other Louisiana parishes as well.
“It’s a way of trying to paper over a funding problem without funding—to make sure that no matter what, they can keep their prosecutions going. Their ‘solution’ is to put up cardboard cut-outs of defense lawyers in place of actually spending the money on real public defenders,” says Stephen Singer. A law professor at Loyola University New Orleans, Singer formerly served as chief of the Orleans Parish public defender’s office.
There’s no pay for the appointments, which could come at a moment’s notice, according to the Marshall Project.
“It’s like if we told a prosecutor to do a medical malpractice suit,” says Ryan Goodwin, an insurance lawyer. He was appointed to represent a 16-year-old charged with stealing someone’s wallet and cellphone at gunpoint. The charges carried a potential life sentence, but Goodwin’s client accepted a plea agreement to testify against another defendant and received a 5-year sentence.
In Winn Parish, which is more rural, J. Keith Gates both prosecutes and defends criminal cases. “There’s no conflict unless you’re prosecuting and defending at the same time,” Gates told the Marshall Project.
Singer disagrees. “He’s a prosecutor,” Singer told the publication. “He plays for the other team.”
Following state budget cuts last year, the parish’s public defender office went from three staff positions to one part-time lawyer. The agency also lost two investigator spots. Gates was called on to help by Winn Parish District Judge Jacque Derr. While Derr agrees with Singer that there is a conflict, he says that there are more pressing issues.
“What I’m scared of is some serious offender who is guilty ending up walking down our streets because of this,” Derr told the Marshall Project. “All I can do is find a lawyer to agree to do it, or else these suckers are fixing to be home free.”
Herman Castete has the parish’s part-time public defender job. He drew up a waitlist for jailed indigent defendants whom the office is conflicted out of representing.
In Orleans Parish in April, Judge Arthur Hunter released indigent defendants who’d been waitlisted for public defenders. Several of those cases are being appealed, according to the Marshall Project.
