Article author:
Associated Press
Portland, Oregon (AP) — The next day in Oregon, Chief Justice Martha Walters dismissed all nine members of the state commission overseeing national defense, appointed four new commissioners, and reinstated five commissioners from the previous group. The appointment will be made, he said Tuesday.
Walters noted the failure of hundreds of defendants charged with crimes and unable to afford attorneys to obtain public defenders to represent them. Out of dissatisfaction, he dismissed members of the committee.
"This leadership change will come quickly, and our work will begin just as quickly," Walters said on Tuesday. I am writing in a letter to the committee. "These issues are too important to delay."
At a hearing last week, Walters told the committee that relatively new executive director of the Department of Defense, Steve Her Singer asked to be dismissed.
Walters, a non-voting member of the committee, has described Singer as unreliable, unnecessarily belligerent, and slow to respond to the state's public defense crisis. Others defend Singer as reforming a long-broken system, while acknowledging that he can be uncomfortable.
The committee was in a 4-4 stalemate with one member absent, even though Walters called for his removal last week. Minutes after publicly appointing the board, the Public Defense Service Commission said it would meet with its attorneys on Wednesday and hold a caucus meeting to "review and evaluate the OPDS executive director's performance."
Walters declined his OPB interview request.
"I think the committee was fired precisely because it refused to fire Steve Singer," said ex-lawyer Mark Hardin, who voted against Singer's firing. The commissioner told his OPB on Monday. "It's hardly a leap." All four of his commissioners, who voted to remove Singer, will be re-elected, and one member, Alton Harvey Jr., will retain Singer as Director of Defense. I voted for that. All commissioners are volunteers.
Oregon's public defender system is the only system in the county that is completely dependent on contractors. A large non-profit legal team, a small collaborating group of privately-held cases, and independent attorneys. I take the case without permission.
However, some corporate and private lawyers routinely refuse to accept new cases due to their high workload. Low wage rates and delays in payments from the state are also discouraging. The American Bar Association found that Oregon only has 31% of the public defenders it needs.
Oregon's unique public defender system is under strain to the point of breaking point. An Oregon criminal defendant, who lost legal representation due to a lack of public defenders, filed a lawsuit in May, accusing the state of violating his constitutional right to an attorney and a speedy trial. claimed to be.
Walters said that "systemic change" is needed and that the Commission is working with Oregon's executive, legislative, and defense communities to create "more for defense providers." We need to create a good system," he said.
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