Introduction

INTRODUCTION

Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense

The Texas Fair Defense Act became law (Senate Bill 7) on January 1, 2002. Among other things, this law created the Task Force, which is a permanent Standing Committee of the Texas Judicial Council. The 77^th Texas Legislature authorized the Task Force to direct the Comptroller to distribute Fair Defense Account funds, including grants, to counties for indigent defense services. It further authorized the Task Force to monitor grants and enforce compliance with grant terms. As part of this process, the Task Force adopted §§ 173.1 –173.402 of the Texas Administrative Code on an emergency basis in order to implement this grant authority established by the Texas Legislature. These administrative rules are available on this web site under Grants Rules on the Grants page.

On January 1, 2002, the judges of county and district courts trying criminal cases were required to prepare written countywide procedures for timely and fairly appointing counsel in these cases. All 254 counties have submitted their interim countywide procedures to the Office of Court Administration (OCA).

On January 23, 2002, Governor Rick Perry made his appointments to the Task Force on Indigent Defense. The Task Force held its first meeting on February 21, 2002. The Honorable Sharon Keller, Presiding Judge, Court of Criminal Appeals was selected to serve as Chair. The Honorable Olen Underwood, 284^th District Court Judge was named Vice Chair.

The Task Force at its second meeting on March 22, 2002 prepared and approved emergency grant administration rules to be published in the Texas Register on April 12, 2002. In addition, the Task Force prepared an application kit that was mailed to all constitutional county judges and local administrative judges on April 9, 2002. The emergency grant rules and grant application kit were drafted to ensure that the money appropriated for this fiscal year is allocated and distributed to counties in a fair manner.

Also, at the March 22, 2002 meeting the Task Force approved the mandatory indigent defense expenditure reporting form pursuant to Section 71.0351 (c) of the Government Code. This form is to be completed by the county's auditor and returned to the OCA no later than November 1, 2002. This form was mailed to all county auditors the week of April 15, 2002.

New staff for the Task Force started in May and the office was set up by the end of May.

May 31, 2002 was the deadline for the grant application kit. 240 counties have submitted applications.