The Supreme Court confirms that the new public defender agency must cover the costs of transcripts

By Ruth Brown, Idaho Reports

The state’s public defender’s office may need even more funding after the Idaho Supreme Court issued an opinion Thursday saying the new office would be responsible for the cost of court records for a defendant’s appeal.

On October 1, the SPD office officially took over all public defense throughout the state. Before the state took over public defense, counties covered the cost of court records for an indigent person’s appeal. The Supreme Court decided that the SPD must now cover these costs and not the state appeals office.

The ruling increases financial uncertainty for the SPD’s founding year. The 2024 legislative session set SPD’s fiscal year 2025 budget at $49 million, which must cover the salaries of the 12 institutional public defender offices and additional contract attorneys across the state.

The amount of funding available is a problem for the agency because it cannot keep up with the salaries of some public defenders who work for counties. For the next fiscal year, the SPD is calling for an increase in funding of $17.7 million.

The SAPD filed a petition with this Supreme Court in October, after the SPD took power, requesting “an order clarifying financial responsibility for the preparation of protocols for appeal proceedings against indigent offenders.” SAPD is also a state agency and provides indigent defense for defendants after conviction.

“The SPD has not referred to any law or regulation that imposes an obligation on the SAPD to pay transcription costs,” the court wrote in its opinion. “Rather, the argument appears to be that SPD should not pay the cost of the transcripts requested by SAPD on behalf of indigent defendants because SPD currently does not have an adequate budget to cover these costs.”

SPD spokesman Patrick Orr, who learned of the statement Thursday morning, said the agency may need additional funding because those expenses were not included in the SPD’s budget request for the next fiscal year.

In its opinion, the court acknowledged the financing concerns.

“We are aware of the SPD’s budget limitations, but whether the SPD currently has resources to fund appeal protocols for indigent defendants is irrelevant to the question of whether it is legally required to do so,” the court wrote. “As we have explained, the clear language and legislative history of the SPD Act demonstrate the legislature’s intent to require the SPD to cover all indigent defense costs previously borne by counties.”

The public defender system law change came after an ACLU lawsuit. Tucker v. IdahoIt found significant deficiencies in Idaho’s public defense system, with overburdened public defenders handling too many cases and indigent defendants having little or no access to their attorneys.

The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. and Idaho Constitutions gives all defendants the right to an attorney if they cannot afford one.

Ruth Brown | producer

Ruth Brown grew up in South Dakota and her first job out of college was covering the South Dakota Legislature. She has since moved to the Idaho Legislature. Brown worked in print journalism for ten years, including at newspapers such as Idaho Statesman And Idaho Presswhere she covers everything from corrections to health issues. She joined Idaho Reports in 2021 and looks forward to telling stories about how state policies can impact the lives of everyday Idahoans.