Report in support of legislation to fully fund indigent legal services throughout New York State

SUMMARY

The City Bar’s Mass Incarceration Task Force (John Savarese, Chair) sent a report to Albany last week urging the Legislature and Governor Cuomo to support full funding of indigent defense services throughout New York State. The right to counsel in criminal proceedings is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, the New York Constitution and state law; and in Gideon v. Wainwright, the Supreme Court held that states are required to provide counsel to any person charged with a crime who cannot afford a lawyer. However, New York’s County Law 18-B makes the 62 state counties responsible for providing indigent defense services, and has resulted in a patchwork of services that falls short of the constitutional mandate. The need for a unified approach to indigent defense has been shown in the findings of the 2004 Kaye Commission study on the effectiveness of indigent criminal defense services across the State and the 2014 settlement of Hurrell-Harring v. State of New York, which required that adequate criminal defense funding and quality standards be provided to five underfunded counties.  The supported legislation would require the state to reimburse every county for the full amount of its expenditures on indigent defense services and would also establish statewide standards and regulations.

BILL INFORMATION

A.6202-C (AM Fahy) / S.6341-B (Sen. DeFrancisco) – requires state reimbursement to counties the full amount of expenditures for indigent legal services (NYS 2015-16)

OUTCOME

A.10706 / S.8114 Vetoed by Governor, Memo 306 – December 31, 2016