Opinion ID: 2541631
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Statutory Framework and Relevant History

Text: We are confronted in this case with overlapping statutes pertaining to the rights of indigent defendants and the imposition of court costs. To understand how the different provisions relate, it is necessary to review briefly how they came to be.
Kentucky has long recognized that poor persons may be allowed to prosecute a civil action without paying costs or fees and with the assistance of appointed counsel. As originally enacted in 1798, the in forma pauperis statute provided that every poor person who shall have cause of action against any person within this Commonwealth, shall have, by the discretion of the court before whom he would sue, writ or writs original, and writs of subpoena, according to the nature of his cause, nothing paying for the same; and that the said court shall direct their clerk to issue the necessary process, shall assign to him counsel learned in the laws, and appoint all other officers requisite and necessary to be had for the speed of the said suit to be had and made, who shall do their duties without any reward for their counsels, help and business in the same. Act approved January 30, 17982 Litt. 39. The direct predecessor of our current in forma pauperis statute, extending the status to defendants, was enacted at least as early as the 1850s, and appears at page 286 in the 1860 edition of the Revised Statutes for the Commonwealth compiled by Richard H. Stanton: [A] poor person residing in this state may be allowed by a court to sue or defend a suit therein, without paying fees or cost, whereupon he shall have any counsel that the court may assign him, and from all officers all needful services and process, without any fees to them therefor, except what may be included in the costs recovered from the opposite party. This statute became section 884 of Carroll's Kentucky Statutes (1894), which in turn, upon the 1942 adoption of the Kentucky Revised Statutes, became our current in forma pauperis statute, KRS 453.190. The statute now provides in relevant part that [a] court shall allow a poor person residing in this state to file or defend any action or appeal therein without paying costs.
Although theoretically the in forma pauperis statute was and is available to criminal defendants, and although it was sometimes invoked by such defendants seeking to be relieved of the costs of an appeal, Braden v. Commonwealth, 277 S.W.2d 7 (Ky.1955); Clouse v. Glass Milling Co., 285 Ky. 690, 149 S.W.2d 9 (Ky. 1941); Shipman v. Commonwealth, 264 Ky. 15, 94 S.W.2d 32 (Ky.1936), historically the right of an indigent criminal defendant to appointed counsel at trial was usually asserted under Section 11 of our Kentucky Constitution. Indeed, this Court has noted that that right, like the rights to trial by jury and confrontation, is a matter of procedural due process, ... not substantive criminal law. The responsibility for determining when and whether counsel must be appointed for a criminal defendant in Kentucky is a function of the judicial department, not the legislature. Fraser v. Commonwealth, 59 S.W.3d 448, 455-56 (Ky.2001) (citation omitted). By the late 1940s, Section 11 had been construed to require that a felony defendant appearing without counsel be advised of his right to counsel, and, upon an adequate showing of the defendant's inability to afford an attorney, that one be assigned to represent him. Calhoun v. Commonwealth, 301 Ky. 789, 193 S.W.2d 420 (1946); Gholson v. Commonwealth, 308 Ky. 82, 212 S.W.2d 537 (1948); Hart v. Commonwealth, 296 S.W.2d 212 (Ky.1956). See also Kentucky Rule of Criminal Procedure (RCr) 3.05(2). Under the constitutional provision, the practice that developed was for representation to be provided to indigent felony defendants on an involuntary, uncompensated basis. Fraser, supra (describing the former practice and citing B. Deatherage, Comment, The Uncompensated Appointed Counsel System: A Constitutional and Social Transgression, 60 Ky. L.J. 710 (1971-72)). The trial court would assign the case to a member of the local bar, whose duties as an officer of the court were thought to include the pro bono representation of indigent defendants. Id. In 1963, however, the burdens on that system were markedly increased. In that year the United States Supreme Court held that the right to counsel provided by the Sixth Amendment to the federal Constitution applies to the states. Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 83 S.Ct. 792, 9 L.Ed.2d 799 (1963). That provision requires that not just indigent felony defendants, but any indigent defendant facing the possibility of incarceration, be represented by counsel at trial, Gideon; Argersinger v. Hamlin, 407 U.S. 25, 92 S.Ct. 2006, 32 L.Ed.2d 530 (1972), and on a first appeal as of right, Douglas v. California, 372 U.S. 353, 83 S.Ct. 814, 9 L.Ed.2d 811 (1963). This expansion of the class of eligible defendants, together with an increased population and rising crime rate, proved to be more than the appointed counsel system could bear. See Bradshaw v. Ball, 487 S.W.2d 294 (Ky.1972) (declaring the appointed counsel system unconstitutional). In response, in 1972 the General Assembly passed House Bill 461, the Act creating this state's Department of Public Advocacy. Codified as KRS Chapter 31, the Department of Public Advocacy (DPA) Act provides: (1) A needy person who is being detained by a law enforcement officer, on suspicion of having committed, or who is under formal charge of having committed, or is being detained under a conviction of, a serious crime, is entitled: (a) to be represented by an attorney to the same extent as a person having his own counsel is so entitled; and (b) to be provided with the necessary services and facilities of representation including investigation and other preparation. The courts in which the defendant is tried shall waive all costs. 1972 Ky. Acts. Chapter 353, Section 11 (emphasis supplied); currently, with some amendment not pertinent here, KRS 31.110(1). Serious crime was defined to include felonies and a misdemeanor or offense any penalty for which includes the possibility of confinement for 6 months or more or a fine of $500 or more. Section 10. That definition has since been amended, to comply with Argersinger, supra , to include [a] misdemeanor or offense any penalty for which includes the possibility of confinement. KRS 31.100(4). Needy person was, and as pertinent here still is, defined as a person who at the time his [or her] need is determined is unable to provide for the payment of an attorney and all other necessary expenses of representation. Section 10 and KRS 31.100(3). Kentucky, of course, is not alone in seeking to abide by the federal constitutional standards. In the wake of Gideon, every state and the federal government enacted legislation providing in some way for the representation of indigent criminal defendants at public expense. Wayne D. Holly, Rethinking the Sixth Amendment for the Indigent Criminal Defendant: Do Reimbursement Statutes Support Recognition of a Right to Counsel of Choice for the Indigent? 64 Brook. L.Rev. 18.1 (1998). The expense is by no means trivial. According to its web site, the Department of Public Advocacy's 2011 budget included some $42,000,000 in state funds. Department of Public Advocacy, Connecting for Justice, Fiscal Year 2011 Annual Litigation Report 2 (2011), available at http://dpa.ky.gov/dpapub.htm (follow DPA 2011 Annual Report hyperlink under Reports). Not surprisingly, therefore, every state's indigent defense legislation includes provisions for the recoupment of defense costs from defendants who are able to contribute to them. Holly, Rethinking the Sixth Amendment, supra. The principal recoupment provisions of the 1972 Act appeared in Section 12 and warrant quotation in full: (1) The determination of whether a person covered by Section 11 is a needy person shall be deferred until his first appearance in court or in a suit for payment or reimbursement under Section 17, whichever occurs earlier. Thereafter, the court concerned shall determine, with respect to each proceeding, whether he is a needy person. However, nothing herein shall prevent appointment of counsel at the earliest necessary proceeding at which said person is entitled to counsel, upon declaration by said person that he is needy under the terms of this Act. In such event the person involved may be required to make reimbursement for the representation involved if he later is determined not a needy person under the terms of this Act. (2) In determining whether a person is a needy person and in determining the extent of his inability to pay, the court concerned may consider such factors as income, property owned, outstanding obligations, and the number and ages of his dependents. Release on bail does not necessarily prevent him from being a needy person. In each case, the person, subject to the penalties for perjury, shall certify in writing or by other record such material factors relating to his ability to pay as the court prescribes. (3) To the extent that a person covered by Section 11 is able to provide for an attorney, the other necessary services and facilities of representation, and court costs, the court may order him to provide for their payment. (emphasis supplied). Although they have evolved to some extent since 1972, subsections (1) and (2) just quoted still appear together as subsections (1) and (2) of KRS 31.120. In 2002, however, subsection (3) was moved from KRS 31.120 to a new recoupment section of the Chapter, KRS 31.211. That section now provides in pertinent part as follows: (1) At arraignment, the court shall conduct a nonadversarial hearing to determine whether a person who has requested a public defender is able to pay a partial fee for legal representation, the other necessary services and facilities of representation, and court costs. The court shall order payment in an amount determined by the court and may order that the payment be made in a lump sum or by installment payments to recover money for representation provided under this chapter. This partial fee determination shall be made at each stage of the proceedings. (2) If the partial fee, or any portion thereof, is not paid by the due date, the court's order is a civil judgment subject to collection under Civil Rule 69.03 and KRS Chapter 426. (3) All moneys received by the public advocate from indigent defendants pursuant to subsection (1) of this section shall be credited to the public advocate fund of the county in which the trial is held if the county has a plan pursuant to KRS 31.060 or 31.065(1) which has been approved by the public advocate pursuant to KRS 31.050. Moneys credited to a county public advocate fund may be used only to support the public advocate program of that county. (4) All moneys collected by the public advocate from indigent defendants pursuant to subsection (1) of this section in counties with a local public advocacy system established by the public advocate pursuant to KRS 31.065(2) shall be credited to the Department of Advocacy special trust and agency account to be used to support the state public advocacy system. (5) If a person receives legal assistance or other benefits under this chapter to which he or she is not entitled or if a person receives legal assistance under this chapter and is financially able to pay for representation on the date the suit is brought, the public advocate, on behalf of the Commonwealth, shall recover, where practical, payment or reimbursement, as the case may be, from the person who received the legal assistance or his or her estate. Suit shall be brought within five (5) years after the date on which the aid was received.... (8) All moneys collected under this section shall be placed in a special trust and agency account for the Department of Public Advocacy, and the funds shall not lapse. Thus, while KRS 31.110 has, from the inception of the public defender program in 1972, provided that needy defendants entitled to representation under the DPA Act shall be relieved of court costs as well as of attorney fees, from the beginning as well the legislation's recoupment provisions have recognized that the universe of criminal defendants is not divided into those who can pay in full and those who can pay nothing. Those provisions have made clear, rather, that need is a matter of degree and that defendants eligible for DPA representation may nevertheless be required to contribute to their defense or to pay court costs if the court determines that they are able to do so.
The third statute applicable to. resolution of the issue before the Court is the aforementioned court costs statute, KRS 23A.205. Adopted in 1976 and effective as of January 2, 1978, the original KRS 23A.205 provided for court costs of $50.00 and in subsection (2) provided simply that costs may be probated or suspended at the discretion of the court. Court costs were increased in 1984 and 1998 with courts retaining the authority to probate or suspend payment. [2] There was still no guidance within KRS 23A.205, however, on factors relevant for consideration in the exercise of that discretion. In 2002, the General Assembly adopted KRS 23A.205 in its present version, incorporating the poor person definition in the in forma pauperis statute and requiring consideration of not only the defendant's present circumstances but also his ability to pay in the foreseeable future. The statute provides: (1) Court costs for a criminal case in the Circuit Court shall be one hundred dollars ($100). (2) The taxation of court costs against a defendant, upon conviction in a case, shall be mandatory and shall not be subject to probation, suspension, proration, deduction, or other form of nonimposition in the terms of a plea bargain or otherwise, unless the court finds that the defendant is a poor person as defined by KRS 453.190(2) and that he or she is unable to pay court costs and will be unable to pay the court costs in the foreseeable future. (3) If the court finds that the defendant does not meet the standard articulated in subsection (2) of this section and that the defendant is nonetheless unable to pay the full amount of the courts costs and fees at the time of sentencing, then the court shall establish a show cause date by which time the court costs, fees, and fines shall be paid and may establish an installment payment plan whereby the defendant pays the full amount of the court costs, fees, and fines to the circuit clerk in installments as established by the court. All court costs and fees under the installment plan shall be paid within one (1) year of the date of sentencing notwithstanding any remaining restitution or other monetary penalty owed by the defendant and arising out of the conviction. Installment payments will be applied first to court costs, then to restitution, then to fees, and then to fines. KRS 23A.205 (emphasis supplied). The court costs statute adopts the following poor person definition in KRS 453.190(2): A poor person means a person who is unable to pay the costs and fees of the proceeding in which he is involved without depriving himself or his dependents of the necessities of life, including food, shelter, or clothing. Thus the poor person standard in KRS 23A.205 is distinguishable from the needy person standard in KRS 31.100 because the latter focuses only on the inability to provide for the payment of an attorney and all other necessary expenses of representation. Also, the KRS 31.211 recoupment provisions provide solely for a present tense determination while KRS 23A.205(2) directs the court to consider both the defendant's ability to pay at present and in the foreseeable future.