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Indigent Defense in Georgia

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"Bill to weaken PD council passes," is Greg Land's report in the Fulton County Daily Report.After hearing a litany of complaints about what sponsors termed an irresponsible, disrespectful and dysfunctional council, the Georgia Senate on Thursday passed legislation that will, if successful in the House, strip all but advisory authority from the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council, placing all decision-making power in the hands of its director.Following a lengthy debate, the Senate brushed aside arguments that the bill invests too much authority in political appointees and deprives defendants of the strong advocacy mandated by the state and federal constitutions, voting 32-to-21 to send the bill to the House. Senate Judiciary Chairman Preston Smith, R-Rome, the primary sponsor of Senate Bill 42, said the agency consistently has refused to provide a justification for its spending demands and, subsequent to a ?reform? package passed last year, become outright rebellious...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on February 20, 2009 (boomark / email).