Report credits South Dakota with reforming system for indigent criminal defendants

Nonprofit legal group says state should end process of recouping defense costs from poor defendants

South Dakota should end the practice of attempting to recoup money from indigent criminal defendants and fund a statewide office to guarantee criminal defendants receive effective counsel guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, a new report finds.

Those recommendations are among five findings from the Sixth Amendment Center, a nonprofit legal organization that the South Dakota Commission on Indigent Legal Services retained to work with the Unified Judicial System to find improvements in the state’s criminal defense system.

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The full report and recommendations are scheduled to be released Wednesday during a press conference held by Supreme Court Chief Justice Steven Jensen and Neil Fulton, the chair of the Commission on Indigent Legal Services and dean of the University of South Dakota Knudson School of Law. They will be joined by Aditi Goel, the deputy director of the Sixth Amendment Center.

The U.S. Constitution guarantees criminal defendants with a lawyer if they can’t afford counsel. As of 2023, South Dakota was one of two states in the country that provided defense through county governments.

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