Chief justice makes case for statewide public defender's office

Current county-by-county system suffers from lack of resources, adequate lawyers

PIERRE – The state of South Dakota’s criminal defense system for those who can’t afford a lawyer is not functioning well in large swaths of the state and should be overhauled, Supreme Court Chief Justice Steven Jensen told the Legislature Wednesday.

South Dakota has required that people accused of crimes must receive adequate representation in court even before statehood. That system served the state well for a century, but it’s faltering now, Jensen said.

Besides making a pitch for funding to overhaul that system, Jensen told lawmakers his budget request includs a new circuit court judge and deputy court clerk for the Second Judicial Circuit – Minnehaha and Lincoln counties. Felony cases in the district have more than doubled in the last decade, while only two new judges were added in that timeframe. Those cases are expected to increase 25 percent by 2026.

And he updated the Legislature on efforts to increase security at both courthouses and for judges in their personal residences. Those efforts include scrubbing identifying information from the Internet and assessing home residences for security. Two judges received credible threats on their lives, with one assailant found to have a cache of weapons and the other knowing details of where the judge lived and places the judge frequented.

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