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Indigent Defense in Dallas

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"State report says Dallas County shouldn't cut public defender's appeal unit," by Kevin Krause.The Dallas County public defender's office wants to prevent its relatively new appeals division from becoming a casualty of this year's budget crisis. And it's getting some help from the state. County commissioners plan to dissolve the 20-month-old division to save $250,000, part of a budget-cutting exercise to close a $34 million budget shortfall. Commissioners have said that the unit isn't cost-effective and that the work should be left to court-appointed lawyers. But a new report from the Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense, which oversees compliance with the 2001 Fair Defense Act, says the appeals division is cost-effective and should be continued and perhaps even expanded...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on July 24, 2008 (boomark / email).