By Ruth Brown, Idaho Reports
The State Public Defender’s Office may need even more funding after the Idaho Supreme Court issued an opinion on Thursday that says the new office is responsible for the cost of court transcripts for a defendant’s appeal.
The SPD’s Office officially took over all public defense statewide on Oct. 1. Prior to the state taking over public defense, the counties paid for the cost of court transcripts for an indigent person’s appeal. The Supreme Court decided that SPD must now take over that cost, not the State Appellate Public Defender’s Office.
The ruling adds more financial uncertainty for the SPD’s inaugural year. The 2024 Legislature set the SPD budget for fiscal year 2025 at $49 million, which must cover salaries at the 12 institutional public defense offices, plus additional contract attorneys across the state.
The amount of funding available is an issue for the agency, as it could not match the salaries that some public defenders made when working for the counties. For the next fiscal year, SPD is asking for a funding increase of $17.7 million.
The SAPD filed a motion in October, after SPD took over, with this Supreme Court requesting “an order clarifying financial responsibility for preparation of transcripts for appeals involving indigent criminal defendants.” SAPD is also a state agency and handles indigent defense for defendants post-conviction.
“The SPD has not pointed to any statute or rule that imposes upon the SAPD any duty to pay transcript costs,” the court wrote in its opinion. “Rather, the argument appears to be that the SPD should not have to pay the costs of transcripts requested by the SAPD on behalf of indigent defendants because the SPD currently does not have an adequate budget to cover those expenses.”
SPD spokesperson Patrick Orr, who learned of the opinion Thursday morning, said the agency may need additional funding, because this expense wasn’t accounted for when SPD submitted its budget request for the next fiscal year. He said the agency will meet and figure out their next steps to move forward.
The court acknowledged the funding concerns in its opinion.
“We are cognizant of the SPD’s budget constraints, but whether the SPD currently has funding to pay for appeal transcripts for indigent defendants is irrelevant to the question of whether it is statutorily obligated to do so,” the court wrote. “As we have explained, the plain language and legislative history of the SPD Act evidence the legislature’s intent to require the SPD to assume all indigent defense costs that were previously paid for by the counties.”
The legislative change to the public defense system came after an ACLU lawsuit, Tucker v Idaho, which found significant deficiencies in Idaho’s public defense system, with overburdened public defenders handling too many cases, and indigent defendants who had little to no access to their attorneys.
The Sixth Amendment of the U.S. and Idaho Constitutions entitles all criminal defendants to an attorney if they cannot afford one.
Ruth Brown | Producer
Ruth Brown grew up in South Dakota and her first job out of college was covering the South Dakota Legislature. She’s since moved on to Idaho lawmakers. Brown spent 10 years working in print journalism, including newspapers such as the Idaho Statesman and Idaho Press, where she’s covered everything from the correctional system to health care issues. She joined Idaho Reports in 2021 and looks forward to telling stories about how state policy can impact the lives of regular Idahoans.