Administrative Office of Courts
Public Defender Task Force to meet Nov. 9 The Mississippi Public Defender Task Force will meet at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 9, at the Mississippi Bar Center at 643 North State Street in Jackson. Members of the Task Force are expected to discuss possible legislation for the 2007 session. The agenda will include recommendations from the legislative subcommittee chaired by Jackson attorney Chris Klotz. Micah Dutro, a law student at Mississippi College School of Law, will present a report on the cost of indigent defense. Dutro has gathered and analyzed 2005 fiscal year budgets from all 82 Mississippi counties. Montgomery County Chancery Clerk Talmadge “Tee” Golding will discuss that county’s experiences in paying for indigent defense. Mississippi Supreme Court Justice James E. Graves Jr., chairman of the Task Force, will preside over the meeting. The 11-member Public Defender Task Force was created by Mississippi Code Section 25-32-71. Members of the Task Force include the president or a designee of the Mississippi Public Defender Association and the Mississippi Prosecutors Association; representatives of the Mississippi Supreme Court, the Administrative Office of Courts, the Conference of Circuit Judges, the Attorney General’s Office, and the Mississippi Association of Supervisors; and the chairs or designees of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Senate Appropriations Committee, the House Judiciary En Banc Committee, and the House Appropriations Committee. #### |
