The Mississippi Public Defender Task Force on March 19 released a report that takes a critical look at the way indigent criminal defendants are represented in state courts.
The report, “The Right to Counsel in Mississippi: Evaluation of Adult Felony Trial Level Indigent Defense Services,” assesses adult felony trial-level indigent defense services throughout the state.
The task force commissioned the Sixth Amendment Center of Boston and the Defender Initiative of the Seattle University School of Law to study the varied ways indigent criminal defense is provided in Mississippi. Work began in 2015.
Seven Mississippi counties have full-time public defender offices and 12 pay hourly rates to private attorneys to represent indigent felony defendants.
Webster is among the remaining 63 counties that provide counsel to indigent felony defendants through appointed private attorneys paid a flat fee to represent an unlimited number of indigent felony defendants.
