Death Penalty Prosecutions May be Halted if Funding is Inadequate

The Louisiana Supreme Court recent­ly ruled that tri­al judges can halt pros­e­cu­tions of poor defen­dants until the state comes up with the mon­ey to pay for an ade­quate defense. Louisiana has in the past failed to ade­quate­ly fund indi­gent defense pro­grams. ​“I think it’s a warn­ing,” said Phyllis Mann, appoint­ed coun­sel for Benjamin Tonguis and Adrian Citizen, two death penal­ty defen­dants whose cas­es were reviewed by the state supreme court. ​“The court is say­ing as plain­ly as they pos­si­bly can not to let peo­ple lan­guish.” Tonguis and Citizen have been await­ing tri­al with lim­it­ed or no funds to pre­pare a defense since their arrests in April and October 2002. When fund­ing for these two cas­es ran out, the tri­al judge tried to tap into a parish-imposed tax. He ordered the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury to pro­vide $200,000 for appoint­ed coun­sel and $75,000 to be placed in escrow for oth­er case-relat­ed expens­es, but the Louisiana Supreme Court for­bid such a tax because it is the state leg­is­la­ture’s respon­si­bil­i­ty to fund indi­gent defense expenses. 

(ABA Journal, April 15, 2005). See Representation.