The state's overburdened public defenders are bracing themselves for an onslaught of new cases, largely because of stiffer penalties for domestic violence and a U.S. Supreme Court decision giving more defendants the right to an attorney.

Last year the General Assembly approved increasing jail time and fines for people convicted of criminal domestic violence. The lawmakers acted in response to South Carolina's comparatively high number of domestic incidents in which women are killed by men.

The changes are expected to increase the number of cases in the state's magistrate courts, which handle lesser crimes, including most criminal domestic violence cases.

In South Carolina, defendants in magistrate court have not been entitled to an attorney, said T. Patton Adams, executive director of the South Carolina Commission on Indigent Defense.

But a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision that came out of Alabama will probably change that. The decision makes it likely that defendants facing any jail time, even as little as 30 days, will be guaranteed an appointed attorney.

That could mean that on top of having to serve all indigent defendants facing criminal charges in the courts' general sessions, public defenders will have to represent clients in the magistrate court who are facing imprisonment, Adams said.

Statewide, public defenders already represent more than 80 percent of the cases on the courts' dockets, he said, and in some areas more than 90 percent.

With so many low-income defendants, the state and counties end up paying for the prosecution and the defense, he said.

But they don't do so equally.

In 2006 the state approved $2.2 million to hire additional prosecutors for criminal domestic violence cases but only $460,000 for the public defenders who will represent many of the accused.

South Carolina ranks 48th in the nation in amount per-capita it spends on indigent defense, he said.

"Unless you have money to hire defense attorneys, the system breaks down," Adams said.

A growing problem

Michael Culler, an Orangeburg public defender, said it usually takes a few years for a U.S. Supreme Court decision to trickle down and become an established practice in a South Carolina courtroom.

He's just beginning to feel the effects of the Alabama case. He's met with the chief magistrate and learned that clients in magistrate court are beginning to ask for legal representation.

"That's what the case holds. People are entitled to counsel," he said.

The six attorneys in his office are already overburdened with case-loads three to four times the size recommended by the American Bar Association, he said.

According to the association, the maximum number of cases a public defender should cover each year is 150 felonies, 400 misdemeanors, 200 juvenile, 200 mental health or 25 appeals.

Jennifer Kneece Shealy, Charleston County's chief public defender, said that although her office receives much more county money than those serving the states' rural areas, the 20 attorneys have "oppressive caseloads."

She has one attorney on her staff who handles cases in magistrate court. And she's beginning to see the number of those cases rise.

She requested county money this year to hire another attorney to represent clients in magistrate court, but the money wasn't available, she said.

Heaping more cases on public defenders will slow down indigent defense statewide, she said.

Defendants likely will wait longer to have their cases heard and jails could become even more crowded.

Culler said the current caseload is "almost untenable, " and he doesn't know how the attorneys in his office could handle more cases.

"I really can't keep up with people now," he said. "I know the crime, not the person."

 

Reach Diane Knich at 937-5491 or dknich@postandcourier.com.

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