Pitting prosecutors against public defenders is unreasonable
Recently, a reporter (from Source New Mexico) wrote a story about the budget requests of district attorneys and public defenders — and that New Mexico spends far more on prosecutors than public defenders.
Anyone who read that article could be left with the impression that, somehow, the two budgets should be equal because they perform the same duties — just on different sides of the courtroom.
That’s inaccurate; comparing the two is like comparing apples to oranges.
To ensure our justice system works, people must have representation, but the job responsibilities of prosecutors differ significantly from those of public defenders. Here are a few examples of how they differ:
District attorneys throughout New Mexico must screen and review every submission by law enforcement to see if a case is viable. The public defender’s office does not. That is a massive amount of workload public defenders do not have.
District attorneys are responsible for providing notice and assistance to crime victims. The public defender’s office has no such obligation or responsibility.
Many district attorney’s offices also include in their budget diversion programs that are housed within the district attorney’s offices to provide alternatives to defendants and keep them away from the criminal justice system entirely. Public defenders have no such programs or budget for their clients to have these options.
District attorneys review every search warrant on active law enforcement cases and investigations, which can be hundreds of thousands of warrants annually. Again, this is a task that public defenders do not have.
Many district attorneys have an “on-call” DA who takes calls at night — in addition to their regular work hours — and will even be present at crime scenes to assist law enforcement with their investigations.
District attorneys often present cases to a grand jury. That is another task where the defense counsel has very little, if any, role.
District attorneys are responsible for ensuring all evidence is disclosed to the defense in a timely manner and for identifying all witnesses for the defense.
In addition, public defenders are not the only ones defending clients. Someone charged with a crime can also hire a private attorney to represent them.
In New Mexico, not every county has a public defender’s office. Some use a contract system where they hire private attorneys to represent indigent defendants instead of having an office in that county.
In Bernalillo County, our office is moving away from police officers prosecuting shoplifting cases because the majority of those cases were falling through the cracks. Now we’re doing it, and that, of course, requires more resources.
Our justice system requires that the prosecution do more work because we are required to bear the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. It is a requirement that should be placed on us and one that is high. It is a burden that requires a different type of budget and not simply one that should be equal across the board for the reasons already stated.
If public defenders need more funding, we support their efforts. We have the best judicial system in the world, but district attorneys’ statutory duties are very different from the Office of the Public Defender.