Judge sees crisis in indigent defense cuts

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Fulton County's chief judge strongly criticized the closure of a metro defender office, saying it was poorly planned and will create a legal crisis for about 1,850 poor people charged with crimes.

"This action by the state is irresponsible — any change in the current system should be carefully planned and coordinated so that there is no break in indigent defense representation," Doris Downs, chief judge of Fulton Superior Court, said in a statement on Monday.

Closing the office so abruptly will create a "legal crisis" because the state cannot prosecute indigents without providing them adequate legal representation, she said.

Downs was reacting to the decision by the Georgia Public Defender Standard Council on Friday to abruptly close down the 21-member Metro Conflict Defender Office at the end of the month. Fulton County's public defender's office has 98 attorneys — the smaller Metro Conflict Defender Office only gets involved in multidefendant cases, when a public defender can represent only one person charged because of conflict-of-interest rules.

AJC