Who We Are
The Lens: Public defenders ask court to toss 3,000 cases stemming from city begging ordinance previously found unconstitutional
The Orleans Public Defenders asked the New Orleans Municipal Court this week to toss out over 3,000 open cases stemming from a city ordinance that outlaws begging, along with any pending fines and fees.
The local law was declared unconstitutional in a 2013 ruling from Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Arthur Hunter. The ruling was later upheld by the state’s Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal and the Louisiana Supreme Court after the District Attorney’s office appealed.
It appears that the city has mostly stopped enforcing the begging prohibition since 2013, but there are still outstanding cases from charges filed prior to Hunter’s ruling. According to the public defenders’ motions, nearly 1,000 of them have attachments — meaning a person could be arrested for the outstanding charge.
“We need to get rid of them, because there are 1,000 people who could get picked up at any given time by NOPD,” said Lauren Anderson, the Supervising Attorney at Municipal and Magistrate Court for the public defenders, who filed the motions.
Read the full article at The Lens.
OPD Files Motions to Dismiss Unconstitutional Charges and Attachments in Municipal Court
This week, the Orleans Public Defenders Office (OPD) filed a motion to quash in New Orleans Municipal Court for nearly 1,000 cases charged with begging, a charge deemed unconstitutional in 2013 by the Louisiana Supreme Court. The filing was a first step to clear the nearly 60,000 outstanding attachments in New Orleans and prioritize health and safety in Municipal Court as the city begins COVID-19 re-openings.
Last fall, a historic coordinated effort to resolve the outstanding warrants in New Orleans was brought to the New Orleans City Council. Led by Stand with Dignity and OPD, the Council unanimously voted for a resolution to waive fines and fees in these outstanding municipal cases and lift the attachments with Councilman Jason Williams acknowledging the cycle of poverty created when fines and fees are assessed without consideration to a defendant’s ability to pay, and the criminalization that occurs when warrants are issued for those who cannot pay.
“This is an important first step to begin removing the barriers for so many of our community members,” said OPD Supervising Attorney Lauren Anderson, who filed the motion. “For too long, court fines and fees have been a significant impediment to people being able to gain employment, maintain housing, or provide for their families. The added threat of arrest further deters their ability to access services and benefits, and simply harms our community.”
Will the Coronavirus Make Us Rethink Mass Incarceration?
Community groups have pointed out the social costs of the prison system for decades. Now the pandemic has exposed its public-health risks.
Read the full article here.
Expect delays for justice and pay cuts for Public Defenders, due to lack of funding and resources
Starting on April 15, Orleans Public Defenders began furloughing their leadership and management teams and the remain staff will be furloughed May 1.
“We shouldn’t have to sacrifice our constitution rights for public health,” said Derwyn Bunton, Chief Defender.
Unfortunately, that’s what is happening, due to the lack of funding. Orleans Public Defenders are projecting an $800,000 shortfall.
‘Public defenders are crucial in getting folks into court and arguing for their bond reduction for their out right release and for change in policy,” explained Bunton.
Their fear is the serious ramifications that come with the Covid-19 shut downs.
“What this does is crater our organization that when we come on the other side of this we are going to be in an immediate constitutional crisis. We won’t have enough resources to move cases. They will be stagnant and you can only prosecute as fast as you can defend.” reasoned Bunton.
The danger that brings, is the open cases that are in the system already will ‘die on the vine.”
“Those cases could also result in innocent people going to jail because we don’t have the resources to exonerate them to find the evidence to tell the district attorney and public that they didn’t do it,” said Bunton.
See the full interview at WGNO.
Orleans Public Defenders announce furloughs in face of decreased revenue due to coronavirus
The Orleans Public Defenders (OPD) announced on Monday that they have begun furloughing employees in the face of an anticipated $800,000 budget shortfall stemming from loss of revenue that comes from court fees and traffic tickets.
Money from court fees and traffic tickets account for about one-third of the office’s budget, according to its most recent annual audit. But with the courts closed due to coronavirus, and fewer traffic tickets being written following the Gov. John Bel Edwards’ stay at home order, those funding sources have diminished.
The furloughs will result in employees having their hours and pay cut between 10 and 30 percent based on salary, with higher salaried employees taking the larger cuts. Lindsey Hortenstine, a spokesperson for the public defenders, said that the furloughs would affect all staff that were not supported by grants or outside funding — about 67 employees.
According to a press release, furloughs began on April 15th for the leadership and management teams at OPD and will start on May 1 for the rest of the staff.
Read the full article at The Lens.
Louisiana public defenders fight to protect clients from coronavirus, even as their offices run out of money
The moment he heard about the first coronavirus case in New Orleans, Derwyn Bunton knew he had to realign his priorities. “I told my staff, ‘Y’all, this is going to get bad,’” he says. Bunton is the district defender for Orleans Parish, or the chief public defender for the city of New Orleans. After that first case, Bunton’s primary objective would be to depopulate the city’s jail, which could quickly become a viral time bomb.
Over the past month, the number of people in jail in New Orleans has dropped from 1,100 to 820, thanks largely to the efforts of Bunton’s staff.
Even as Bunton’s offices work to free people from the jail, arrests for low-level crimes have continued. The Louisiana Supreme Court has canceled jury trials in the state, but New Orleans courts are still holding hearings via teleconference. Bunton mentions one recent client who was arrested and spent a night in jail on a three-year-old trespassing charge. “Because of the statute of limitations, it wasn’t even prosecutable,” he says. “We had another client arrested for possession of a single Oxycodone tablet. Another for failure to return a rental car on time. We need to be limiting law enforcement’s interactions to serious crimes only, for the safety of everyone.”
Read the full article at Washington Post.
