“The wait list for capital defense representation has been growing for a year and a half, since the state legislature diverted $3 million from the board’s $8.5 million capital defense fund to local public defender offices, a move Dixon describes as ‘basically rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.’ Currently seven people facing the death penalty are in jail indefinitely because they can’t afford a lawyer—a situation that Bunton calls the ‘worst kind of limbo’ for defendants, as well as victims’ families.“

The Appeal

October 29, 2018