State v. Kyle
State v. Kyle
Opinion of the Court
| TWrit granted; stay vacated; case remanded. This Court’s jurisprudence regarding the funding of costs and expenses of pro bono counsel appointed to represent indigent defendants in criminal cases has evolved primarily in the context of capital prosecutions in which the heightened need for reliability invariably requires substantial financial investment in the services of investigators and experts as counsel prepares for both the guilt and sentencing stages of trial. State v. Citizen, 04-1841 (La.4/1/05), 898 So.2d 325; State v. Craig, 93-2515 (La.5/23/94), 637 So.2d 437; State v. Wigley, 624 So.2d 425 (La. 1993). In that context, a trial court appropriately considers at the outset whether funding is available to private counsel appointed to represent the defendant, and if it is not, as we made clear in Citizen, may consider staying the proceedings until funding is made available. The court thereby avoids confronting counsel with a choice either to undertake a considerable financial burden with no certainty of repayment or to fore-go the expense of obtaining additional resources at the risk of rendering |2ineffective assistance, particularly at the sentencing stage of the capital proceeding. See, e.g., Rompilla v. Beard, 545 U.S. 374, 125 S.Ct. 2456, 162 L.Ed.2d 360 (2005); Wiggins v. Smith, 539 U.S. 510, 123 S.Ct. 2527, 156 L.Ed.2d 471 (2003).
In the context of non-capital prosecutions, such as the present case, a trial court may not appropriately presume that counsel will invariably require substantial additional resources to represent the defendant adequately at trial. Testimony adduced at the hearing on counsel’s motion for funding indicated that only two pro bono counsel had asked the District Public Defender for additional funds for investigators, in amounts not more than $1000, and that the funds had in fact been found despite a cutback in overall services that led to a marked increase in the appointment of pro bono counsel. A trial court acts prematurely in staying the proceedings in non-capital cases at the outset on a generalized undifferentiated request
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STATE of Louisiana v. Andrew KYLE
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published