In April 1992, Plaintiff, the chief public defender for the Fourth Judicial District instituted a declaratory judgment action in the Hennepin County District Court pursuant to state law. Plaintiff alleged that the Minnesota statute establishing the funding system for the public defender's office ...
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In April 1992, Plaintiff, the chief public defender for the Fourth Judicial District instituted a declaratory judgment action in the Hennepin County District Court pursuant to state law. Plaintiff alleged that the Minnesota statute establishing the funding system for the public defender's office does not provide sufficient funds for its operation. Plaintiff further alleged that the lack of funding violated indigent defendants constitutionally rights to effective counsel because of an arbitrary cap on state spending for public defender services. The District Court (Lindstrom, J.) found the statute unconstitutional. The defendants appealed to the Minnesota Supreme Court.
On February 16, 1996 the Minnesota Supreme Court (Keith, C.J.) reversed the District Court's judgment. It found that the constitutional violations of ineffective assistance of counsel were too speculative since there was no evidence that any public defender was unable to effectively assist a client.
Dayna Frenkel - 02/25/2009
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