Chapman says state’s budget issues affecting public defense

The 6th and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution and the Louisiana House Bill No. 436 Act No. 307 provides each citizen of Louisiana with the promise of “adequate council” in criminal and civil cases in a court of law. By the end of the recent Samuel Anderson murder trial though, Public Defender Alex “Sonny” Chapman realized the negative impact the State of Louisiana’s budget issues are having on this guaranteed right.
“At one time we had two investigators working with our public defenders in Evangeline Parish,” said Chapman. “However, in 2012 the funds were not there for us to continue paying for these investigators, and we still cannot afford to pay for them. We as public defenders now are having to do our own investigative work for the 600 felony cases that are divided between our four felony public defenders.”
The prosecutors for the State have a full time investigator on staff, receive services from all parish law enforcement agencies, and state police on occasion, while the public defense system in the parish have only public defenders on the payroll because it is all that can be afforded.
Chapman represented Anderson alongside defense attorney Greg Cook, who is not a public defender, and it was through Cook’s efforts that additional security camera footage was discovered that had not been presented by the State in the trial.
“I am not a technology person, and I am not an investigator, so had it not been for Greg Cook, the footage would have never been discovered,” said Chapman. “Although the footage did not end up helping our case, I realized without the assistance of an investigator I cannot provide adequate council to the people that I represent.”
In February, the State provided the public defenders in Evangeline Parish with $22,000.00, which Chapman is hoping he will be able to stretch until July.
Chapman said, “We should have enough money to make it through July, but in June we will receive money from the State for the next fiscal year, and I’m afraid we will only receive enough to last until December because of the financial state Louisiana is in.”
If the funds run out, Chapman believes this could lead to attorneys in the area having to provide pro bono (free) council.
“Come in January, if the funds aren’t there our four public defenders, which are: me, Jacob Fusilier, Alicia Kelly, and Bo West; will no longer take on more cases,” said Chapman. “We will continue working on the 600 felony cases that we currently have, but the State may have to step in and force all attorneys in the area to represent indigent defendants pro bono unless an attorney is exempt like our district attorneys would be.”
If this were to happen, Chapman feels as though the State would be getting even closer to infringing on the rights of citizens than they already are.
Chapman said, “The Louisiana Public Defender Act that was passed in 2007 promised adequate council for the accused, but I am not sure how adequate that council will be if a real estate attorney who has never tried a case before a jury has to now represent a defendant in a criminal case. If this has to happen, then the State will be very close to crossing that line of not providing defendants with a right that has been guaranteed to us all. Adequate council helps make sure that an innocent person is never wrongly convicted.”