Responsibility clarification in cases

Clarification of responsibilities for providing public defense and appointed counsel when it comes to criminal and juvenile court is part of a new law.

In addition to statewide consistency, supporters say the law should help resolve some issues that have been outstanding for 20 or more years regarding public defense and when public defenders are appointed to a case. They say the lack of clarity has resulted in county attorneys spending a lot of time going through an appeals process of who is to provide this representation.

Rep. Kelby Woodard (R-Belle Plaine), who sponsors the law with Sen. Dan Hall (R-Burnsville), said the law is the result of discussion over the past few years between county attorneys, public defenders and the state judiciary. It also incorporates gubernatorial recommendations regarding income guidelines for public defenders.

Among its provisions, the law deletes the statutory right to counsel on sex offender end-of-confinement risk-level assignment appeals and expands the right to representation by a public defender for a person appealing a conviction of a misdemeanor crime.

Other provisions in the law include:

• specifies whether various parties in child protection cases will be represented by a public defender or court-appointed counsel at county expense;

• establishes financial responsibility for misdemeanor appeals, which the Supreme Court, in a 2011 case deemed is a state responsibility;

• in an effort to prove paternity as soon as possible and reduce social service costs, provides that a court shall appoint counsel in paternity proceedings if the party would be unable to afford counsel and limits such representation to establishment of parentage;

• pre-sentence investigation and lifetime imprisonment reports will be provided at no charge to counsel representing the defendant on appeals or post-conviction relief petitions;

• the state court administrator’s office will pay costs if a court appoints standby or advisory counsel; however, if the prosecutor has requested one, the governmental unit conducting the prosecution must pay; and

• prior to the appointment of a public defender to represent a defendant charged with a misdemeanor, the court shall inquire of the prosecutor whether the prosecutor intends to certify the case as a petty misdemeanor. If an offense is certified as a petty misdemeanor, the defendant is not eligible for a public defender.

Signed April 23 by Gov. Mark Dayton, most of the law takes effect Aug. 1, 2012.

HF2059/ SF1678*/CH212