A plan to change how public defenders hire contract lawyers specializing in death penalty cases has hit a snag at the newly formed Public Defender Oversight Board.
In play is nearly $5 million in contracts with a handful of capital defense teams who play a major role in the state’s public defense system.
State Public Defender Remy Starns rolled out a plan last week for public defenders in judicial districts across the state to continue partnering with organizations such as the Capital Defense Project of Southeast Louisiana. For years, the state public defender's office has outsourced most of the capital cases on its docket to organizations that provide certified capital defense counsel. Those contracts have run through the State Public Defender’s office.
But Starns now wants district chiefs in four public defender offices — including East Baton Rouge — to start handling business with the law firms directly, assigning cases and doling out payments without the state office serving as a buffer.
His proposal raised red flags for at least one district public defense chief, who worried it could lead to a misuse of public funds. The Caddo Parish Public Defender was set to receive $426,667 under Starns’ plan to partner her office with the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center, a New Orleans law firm. Michelle AndrePont, the Caddo district chief, worried she’d be tasked with disbursing money for cases outside the First Judicial District.
“There are currently zero capital cases in Caddo Parish,” she told board members at a meeting last week. “If what Mr. Starns proposes passes, I believe it’s making me a regional director at that point, and that implies all sorts of other things."
AndrePont later added that she is under contract to handle services in her own district, not regionally, and doing otherwise could run afoul of the state Legislative auditor's office.
The committee members ended up voting to review the contracts further before making a decision.
But Kyla Blanchard-Romanach, who heads East Baton Rouge’s Public Defender Office, said she worried that delaying contract decisions would cut off funding for the program when the new fiscal year begins July 1.
Blanchard-Romanach is also director of the Baton Rouge Capital Conflict Office, and has worked to forge a public alliance with that nonprofit as a step in the state’s initiative to address the massive backlog in its public defense system. Step two is setting up similar partnerships involving public defenders in Caddo, St. Tammany, Washington, Lafayette, Vermillion and Acadia parishes.
“I’m willing to work and do whatever needs to be done in the system," she said after the vote. "I’m doing the best that I can to do that. But I just need a board that will support what we’re doing and make sure that the funding is there to continue what we’re doing.”
Board members gave assurances that the current plan will remain unchanged in the interim.
Public defender offices in 42 districts represent more than 146,000 criminal defendants declared too poor to hire their own attorney. The statewide system is going through a transition under Gov. Jeff Landry.
Last week's meeting was the first for the renamed and reconfigured Public Defender Oversight Board, which was revamped during Landry’s special crime session earlier this year. Landry led the charge to abolish a previous 11-member board, which had authority to make personnel decisions and administer the system’s $52 million budget. The governor tapped Starns to stay on as State Public Defender, and the legislature shifted regulatory, budgeting and supervisory authority to Starns’ office. A new 9-person panel was established that retains some oversight powers.
The Oversight Board discussed more than $8.3 million in contracts for fiscal year 2025, which begins July 1. About $4.9 million was carved out for programs to bolster defense in capital cases before and after convictions. The board approved another $3.4 million earmarked for outside help in non-capital cases that carry life-without-parole sentences.
Starns defended his plan to reroute the capital defense contracts from his office as a way to save undermanned districts money while building a “network of representation” for parishes with high case backlogs.
“This is the first step to integrate the program with the districts,” he said. “And it’s shocking to me that there’s any resistance to that at all. It’s the right thing to do. It’s what needs to be done.”
Public defenders currently represent defendants in 20 capital cases statewide, including two in East Baton Rouge.
Frank Thaxton III, a holdover from the previous board, resisted the idea of local offices managing partnerships with outside firms themselves.
“It makes no sense that these districts will have to do the accounting when the state public defender’s going to be in charge of the contracts,” said Thaxton, a retired Caddo parish district judge. “He (Starns) can decide which ones go where and how many go where.”
Starns said his central office right now is a barrier that separates district public defenders and capital defense programs. He said he wants to streamline the approach by bringing the sides together.
Thaxton argued for retaining the system in effect since 2016. Starns lambasted that suggestion.
“It is an example of the absolute poor policies of the past that I believe the legislature and governor tried to eliminate by abolishing the Public Defender Board and creating this new system," Starns said. "And I strongly urge you not to adopt that misguided approach to the public defender system.”