Report: State should pay for public defenders

A report presented Tuesday to the Supreme Court says the cost of Nevada's public defender network, now estimated at about $45 million a year, should be covered by the state rather than by local governments.

The cost, two-thirds of it in Clark County and the balance in Washoe and outlying counties, is for services mandated by a long-standing U.S. Supreme Court requirement that indigents charged with crimes get adequate legal counsel.

District Court Judge Dan Papez of Ely and Chief Deputy Federal Public Defender John Lambrose of Las Vegas submitted the report to the high court. They chaired a subcommittee of the state Indigent Defense Commission that produced the document.

Lambrose said costs of public defender services originally were to be covered by the states, but rural counties were left to "wither on the financial vine" and now pay about 80 percent of the costs of such services.

Papez said it's the state's responsibility to subsidize the costs of providing public defenders, although that will be tough given the current economic downturn. The funding would have to be approved by the state Legislature and governor.

The subcommittee report notes that the current estimated cost of $45 million doesn't take into account the need to increase the number of lawyers representing indigents or the costs necessary to "ensure a competent defense."

While the subcommittee report calls for state funding, Lambrose and Papez also said local control of the defender services should be maintained.

"We just want the state to pick up the tab," Papez said, adding, "Choose your own system. The state's going to pay for it."

The report follows the Supreme Court's adoption in October of standards to ensure that indigent defendants get adequate counsel. The court set an April 1 deadline for implementing those standards.

The court also gave Washoe and Clark counties, Nevada's largest, until May to complete studies on caseloads that public defenders should carry.

The mandate was scheduled to take effect last April but was delayed pending a review of the impact on rural areas of the state.

While the cost of upgrading public defender services is high, justices have been told that not complying with the U.S. Supreme Court's mandate for those services opens the state and its counties to possible lawsuits.

The high court had noted a year ago that the average caseload for a public defender is 364 felony and gross misdemeanor cases in the Las Vegas area and 327 cases in the Reno area. The standard recommended by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association is 150 cases.

The Indigent Defense Commission, made up of jurists, court administrators and equal-justice advocates, was formed following a Las Vegas Review-Journal series that detailed problems with Clark County's public defender system.