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SANTA CRUZ — A key state fund that has helped reinvestigate dozens of Santa Cruz County convictions over the past two years could be eliminated in next year’s budget.
The governor’s 2023-24 budget proposal released Wednesday would save $50 million by cutting the third year of the statewide Public Defense Pilot Program grant, according to a summary from the state Senate Budget Committee. It has been demanded. The announcement came shortly after the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to accept the same grant worth $284,321.30.
Within the Santa Cruz County Public Defender’s Office, the Collateral Consequences and Reentry Division is tasked with monitoring the latest state sentencing laws and how they impact previous sentences. Public Defender Heather Rogers described the unit’s operations as dealing with complex, moving targets.
The firm, which launched a year and a half ago as a public firm rather than a privately contracted law firm with the help of a pilot program grant, has handled 22 post-conviction cases. Represented and considered an additional 122 petitions to a more limited extent. Subsidy umbrella. Gov. Rogers said Thursday that the governor is “still trying to figure out” the impact if his budget proposal becomes reality later this year, but such cuts would be “short-sighted and unfortunate.” . He said the public defender’s office will continue to provide post-conviction relief efforts, but he looks forward to an expansion in Santa Cruz County’s budget to help fill the agency’s already stretched funding and resource gaps.
“State support for public defense is critical to ensuring fairness and justice in the criminal legal system,” Rogers wrote in an email to the Sentinel.
To date, pilot grant funds have been awarded to four specific categories, including sentence reductions recommended by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation or the Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office, murder resentencing for former co-defendants who are not considered principal offenders, and adverse trials. is being paid for the incident. Immigration-related outcomes not properly disclosed prior to filing, new exculpatory evidence being disclosed, and outcomes related to youthful offender parole hearings being disclosed.
In an interview before news of proposed state budget cuts broke, Rogers said one of the first things he would do when he started his office in 2022 would be to solicit grants like this pilot program. said.
Conviction Relief Unit High Success Rate
“The grant itself is about responding to the indignities that the state has imposed through legislation,” Rogers said in a joint call with team analyst Suzanne Willis, the supervisor who oversees the post-conviction rescue and reentry team. “It really addresses an unfunded obligation.”
“The bad news is it’s not always state-funded, so it’s putting a strain on our office,” Rogers said of sentencing relief work. “The good news is that by taking mass incarceration hard and trying to think more thoughtfully and clearly about how we have bluntly applied harsh sentencing rules to people, all of this outrage has become more important to us. There is a background knowledge that most people who are incarcerated disproportionately impact people of color and poor people.”
The firm handles cases with no client disputes (shared with private contracting firms) and is required to conduct extensive research into each client’s eligibility for resentencing and post-judgment actions. Of these cases, Ms. Lipperd’s team, consisting of herself, three paralegals, four university interns, and a second attorney, achieved temporary relief in 15 successful cases, with one still pending. One case is pending, and the other is under appeal.
Lippard said the grant supports the unit’s work, including the record 949 petitions filed under the Clean Slate program (with just 14 lost and 114 pending) and the strict deadlines set. It does not cover legislation such as Senate Bill 483 of 2021. Reopening the case of an inmate whose sentence has been extended based on a past prison sentence or drug conviction.
“Our clients are now coming back and receiving sentences that are appropriate and not excessive for their actions,” Lippard said. “We have had very great success in most of our counterclaims. The courts understand that too, and they recognize that they need to amend their judgments, so many of our clients amend their judgments. it was done.”
The governor’s budget proposal could also impact courts across the state, recommending $40 million in cuts over two years to the court-appointed special counsel fund.
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