Louisiana Indigent Defender Program Under Fire

Red River Radio | By Chuck Smith

Published February 7, 2017 at 9:52 AM CST

CLASS ACTION SUIT- A lawsuit was filed today against Louisiana officials who oversee the state’s indigent defense services, alleging officials are denying poor people their constitutional right to counsel by failing to establish an effective statewide public defense system. The suit, filed in the 19th Judicial District Court in East Baton Rouge Parish, names as defendants Gov. John Bel Edwards and the current members of the Louisiana Public Defender Board, which is responsible for the oversight of statewide legal services to the poor in criminal cases.

ADEQUATE LEGAL COUNSEL?- Steven Ayres has been in jail since June 2016 and has seen his lawyer just once for his defense.

CAN'T ARGUE DEFENSE - Ashley Hurlburt is in Jail and still awaiting legal defense.

Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Her group, along with the Southern Poverty Law Center, Jones Walker LLP and Davis, Polk and Wardwell LLP, are asking that the state’s funding scheme for indigent defense be declared unconstitutional, since it “often results in people being denied due process”.

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Chuck Smith

Chuck Smith brings more than 30 years' broadcast and media experience to Red River Radio. He began his career as a radio news reporter and transitioned to television journalism and newsmagazine production. Chuck studied mass communications at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia and motion picture / television production at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has also taught writing for television at York Technical College in Rock Hill, South Carolina and video / film production at Centenary College of Louisiana, Shreveport.

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