Opinion ID: 1681076
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: original appeal

Text: On appeal, this court affirmed defendant's conviction, but we found merit to the defendant's assertion that the district court erred in failing to declare her indigent for the purpose of obtaining state-funded expert assistance for the sentencing phase of her trial. State v. Frank, 99-0553 (La.1/17/01), 803 So.2d 1 ( Frank I ). After determining that the district court abused its discretion in not declaring defendant indigent pre-trial, we considered what, if any, prejudice defendant suffered as a result of not being declared indigent. Frank I, 99-0553 at p. 6, 803 So.2d at 8. In considering this issue, we noted that in State v. Touchet, 93-2839 (La.9/6/94), 642 So.2d 1213, this court addressed the specific issue of the showing an indigent needs to make to obtain state-funded expert assistance as follows: Henceforth, for an indigent defendant to be granted the services of an expert at the expense of the state, he must establish that there exists a reasonable probability both that an expert would be of assistance to the defense and that the denial of expert assistance would result in a fundamentally unfair trial. Frank I, 99-0553 at pp. 7-8, 803 So.2d at 9 (quoting Touchet, 93-2839 at p. 6, 642 So.2d at 1216). We found that because the trial court did not allow a hearing on the matter, we did not have adequate information upon which to decide whether defendant was entitled to the state-funded expert assistance she requested and what prejudice she may have suffered as a result of not obtaining that assistance. Frank I, 99-0553 at pp. 9-10, 803 So.2d at 11. Consequently, we permitted review of defendant's assignments of error regarding the penalty phase of her trial and remanded the case to the district court for an evidentiary hearing at which defendant was to be afforded the opportunity to make the necessary showing under Touchet for obtaining state-funded expert assistance.