In Louisiana, a lack of ade­quate fund­ing for indi­gent defense in death penal­ty cas­es is caus­ing a crit­i­cal short­age of qual­i­fied coun­sel and long delays in cas­es. John Di Giulio, a mem­ber of the Louisiana Public Defender Board, said that pub­lic defend­ers and region­al offices that rep­re­sent death penal­ty clients are ​“over­worked and under­fund­ed.” Mike Mitchell, chief pub­lic defend­er of the East Baton Rouge Public Defender’s office, attrib­uted the short­age of lawyers to the demand­ing nature of death penal­ty tri­als. He said, ​“It’s tough work. A lot of attor­neys steer away from it. Historically it’s been tough work for lit­tle pay.” He esti­mat­ed that rep­re­sent­ing one cap­i­tal mur­der case can cost his office a min­i­mum of $100,000, which does not include fees for expert wit­ness­es and inves­ti­ga­tion. In many cas­es, the pros­e­cu­tion has more resources. The state Department of Public Safety and Corrections has spent $8 mil­lion so far on the pros­e­cu­tion and defense of the ​“Angola 5,” inmates at Angola charged with killing a secu­ri­ty offi­cer at the prison. By com­par­i­son, the state’s Capital Assistance Project, has a total annu­al bud­get of about $1 mil­lion. Mitchell pre­dicts that the short­age of death penal­ty-cer­ti­fied attor­neys and the lack of fund­ing for cap­i­tal defense will fur­ther delay death-penal­ty cas­es, which already take years to come to tri­al. Louisiana has car­ried out two exe­cu­tions in the last 10 years. Pete Adams, the head of the dis­trict attor­neys asso­ci­a­tion, said that if local pub­lic defend­er offices stop tak­ing new cap­i­tal mur­der cas­es, ​“it would square­ly place the cost of cap­i­tal defense in the lap of the Legislature.”

(J. Gyan, ​“Defenders dwin­dling, death penal­ty cas­es face delays,” The Advocate, June 19, 2012). See Representation. Listen to our pod­cast on Representation.

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