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IL: Trial judge cannot bar a public defender from court

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

A trial judge has no authority to order an assistant public defender out of his courtroom. In this case, the judge has some personal disagreements with the APD and refused to recognize her as an advocate in his courtroom. Burnette v. Terrell, 106678 (Ill. March 19, 2009): We conclude that it is not within the authority of a judge to assign specific cases to specific assistant public defenders. Such actions usurp the statutory authority of the public defender to hire and manage his staff. When the public defender assigns several assistant public defenders to a particular courtroom, it is not a delegation of his authority to the judge who presides there to choose specific assistant public defenders to represent individual defendants. Rather, it is an assignment to the assistant public defenders to step up as directed by the public defender (who apparently employs a week-by-week rotation) when the court finds it necessary to direct the public defender’s office to represent an indigent defendant...continue to full post

Full post as published by Law Of Criminal Defense on March 20, 2009 (boomark / email).