Bill to weaken PD council passes
Senate votes 32-21 to move bill to turn public defender council into an advisory board; opponents say bill is overreaction to criticism

By Greg Land, Staff Reporter

After hearing a litany of complaints about what sponsors termed an irresponsible, disrespectful and dysfunctional council, the Georgia Senate on Thursday passed legislation that will, if successful in the House, strip all but advisory authority from the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council, placing all decision-making power in the hands of its director.

Following a lengthy debate, the Senate brushed aside arguments that the bill invests too much authority in political appointees and deprives defendants of the strong advocacy mandated by the state and federal constitutions, voting
32-to-21 to send the bill to the House.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Preston Smith, R-Rome, the primary sponsor of Senate Bill 42, said the agency consistently has refused to provide a justification for its spending demands and, subsequent to a "reform" package passed last year, become outright rebellious. The agency voted earlier this month to ignore instructions from Gov. Sonny Perdue to cut spending, instead submitting a proposed budget of $38.3 million-$12 million more than Perdue advised. (At the same meeting, the council voted 8-3 to oppose SB 42, cast by members who also serve on county commissions.)

"For five years, the General Assembly has asked for a budget" from the agency, which began operation Jan. 1, 2005, said Smith, "and for five years, we have been denied."

Smith was particularly irked by some members of the council advocating that the council spend any funding it has on current salaries and expenses, then simply demand more money or stop defending cases.

He read comments from council member Wycliffe Orr urging his colleagues to tell the governor's budget-writers that "we will have no part" of cutbacks, and "when [funding] runs out, it runs out and it will not be our fault."

He and fellow co-sponsor Sen. John Wiles, R-Kennesaw, also blasted Orr for a Jan. 21 letter published in the Daily Report in which he accused the Legislature of "kidnapping and murder" for its moves shifting the council from the judicial branch to the executive in 2007, and for refusing to allocate to the council millions of dollars in court filing fees and add-ons that the Legislature earlier had crafted to fund the system.

Such "hyperbolic criticism" seemed particularly ironic, said Smith, because the council had worked with lawmakers to draft legislation changing the makeup of the council and removing all appointing authority from the judicial branch.

The senators also pointed to the multi-lawyer team appointed to defend convicted Fulton County Courthouse killer Brian Nichols, whose defense exceeded $2 million, as evidence that the council was providing far more than the "adequate and reasonable" defense guaranteed by the state constitution.

Rising in opposition, several lawmakers expressed concerns that the Senate might be overreacting to the council's criticisms and public outrage over the Nichols case.

Sen. Kasim Reed, D-Atlanta, pleaded with his colleagues to reconsider "such an extreme step" as stripping the council of its authority. Nichols is "a horrible person," he said, but to jeopardize access to counsel for thousands of other Georgians facing criminal charges because of his rampage would only spread the damage he has already done.

Senate Minority Leader Robert Brown, D-Macon, said the body had lost sight of the council's reason for being. "I know there's a lot of frustration," he said, but "it's not the council standing before the bar of justice; it's the defendant. . If I'm standing before the bar of justice, I don't care about any of this stuff you're talking about."

Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, also urged restraint, conceding that the agency had some problems, but that the pending legislation-taken in conjunction with the earlier legislative constraints-was pushing the state away from the progress it had made in addressing indigent defense and "in the other direction."

"There's probably a better way to do it," said Fort, bowing to the inevitability of the leadership-backed bill's passage and predicting that the agency's future would likely be decided in the Supreme Court at some point.

After the vote, Smith said that the council's budget might be increased if it starts providing the figures to back up its requests.

"I think they may be able to make a case to justify a larger budget," he said.
"But right now, everything they say is, 'How much have you got.'"

Council Executive Director Mack Crawford, who was not at the Capitol, had no comment on the vote. "We'll deal with whatever they send us," he said.

Orr, reached by telephone, welcomed word that his statement had been noted on the Senate floor.

"If I got under their skin, that's as it should be," he said. "SB 42 is an effort to silence those who are willing to tell them what they need to hear, that they are undermining the indigent defense system and deceiving the people of Georgia."

"They can't handle the truth," he added. "They want sycophants."

Sarah Totonchi, of the Southern Center for Human Rights, decried the vote.

"The members of the Georgia Public Defenders Standards Council are citizen volunteers from around our state who are experts on constitutional legal defense," she said. "Their oversight is an important means to ensuring adequate defense, which is critical to fairness and accuracy in the prosecution of poor people accused of crimes.

"We have made too much progress in creating a better system to risk going backward," she said. State Bar of Georgia lobbyist Rusty Sewell said the organization opposed the bill, but was hoping to work with the governor and legislators to address their concerns with the council.
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Staff Reporter Greg Land can be reached at Greg.Land@IncisiveMedia.com