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Requirement to appoint indigent defendants a lawyer not an "unfunded mandate"

IMO it's a mistake for prosecutors and Texas counties to label additional indigent defense costs stemming from the Supreme Court's Rothgery decision an "unfunded mandate," which is what Shannon Edmonds from the prosecutors association said in a column by Fort Worth Star Telegram editorial writer Linda Campbell.Texas counties have a big problem with actual unfunded mandates - i.e., when Congress or the Legislature create new responsibilities for local government but refuse to pay for it. But that's not what's going on with the Rothgery decision. Instead, Texas is one of a handful of states where counties weren't already meeting the minimal constitutional standard for indigent representation. SCOTUS told Texas and similarly situated states that they'd too narrowly interpreted their duty to appoint counsel under the Sixth Amendment...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on July 10, 2008 (boomark / email).