Supreme Court hears proposals on indigent defense
On Friday, December 14th, the Nevada Supreme Court held a public hearing concerning recommendations by the Indigent Defense Commission Report. The hearing was well attended by representatives of the ABA, NACDL, national ACLU, Clark County Public Defender's Office, Clark County Special Public Defender's Office, Washoe County Public Defender's Office and the Federal Public Defender's Office. Representatives from Clark County and Washoe County were also present. An audio recording of the argument is available online.
There appeared to be unanimous agreement that performance standards should be required. Most participants in the hearing agreed that case load limits should also be enacted, but this was contested by county officials who expressed concern over the cost. The Clark County Assistant Manager appeared to understand that additional attorneys would need to be hired while the Washoe County representative believed that the crisis in indigent defense could be solved with enhanced technology. This suggestion was not taken well by most of those in attendance at the meeting.
Part 2 of the hearing will take place Thursday, December 20th. I am informed that the Justices will be in Carson City and that the hearing will be teleconferenced to Las Vegas.
It is clear that there are serious financial concerns over the long overdue changes that must be made to our indigent defense system. So far I have not heard any mention of one obvious source of additional funds: stop the death penalty and commute the existing death sentences to life without the possibility of parole. The financial cost of the death penalty is enormous and those resources are better spent on the essentials of a criminal just system, such as competent defense counsel with reasonable case loads.