Court Opinion

ID: 9752700
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 18:29:15.590407+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:21.129137
License: Public Domain

MURRAY, Justice,
concurring.
In concurring with the result and the rationale of my associates that no attorney-client relationship existed between the public defender and the defendant, I feel compelled to articulate further the essentials necessary to create the relationship of attorney and client between an indigent criminal defendant and a member of the Public Defender’s office. In so doing, it is important that the function and the role of the Public Defender’s office be placed in its historical perspective.
In 1941, the General Assembly created the Office of the Public Defender by the enactment of P.L. 1941, ch. 1007, § 1. In that enactment, section 3 provided that “[i]t shall be the duty of the public defender to represent and act as attorney for indigent defendants * * The creation of the Office of the Public Defender thus represented the statutory institutionalization of an earlier system which provided legal assistance to indigent defendants by court appointment of private counsel after the court had made a finding of indigency.
Section 3 of the original legislation creating the office required the Public Defender to represent indigent defendants “in those criminal cases referred to him by the superior courts.” This provision, which may now be found as G.L.1956 (1981 Reenactment) § 12-15-3, provides that the Public Defender represent indigent defendants in those criminal cases referred to him by this court, the Superior Court, and the District Court. Other provisions of the General Laws empower the justices of the Family Court to request that the Public Defender represent a parent or a child involved in a delinquency or dependency hearing (G.L. 1956 [1981 Reenactment] § 14-1-31) or to represent a defendant in a criminal proceeding in that court (G.L.1956 [1981 Reenactment] § 14-1-58).
A reading of each of the above-cited statutory provisions makes it clear that the Public Defender is designated to represent a particular defendant through a referral of that defendant by a justice of one of the courts enumerated therein. Once referred to the Public Defender, a defendant must submit to the department a sworn financial statement, setting forth his or her current assets and liabilities, sources of income and the names of those persons, if any, able to support him or her or to whom he or she is entitled to look for support. The Public Defender, after referral, is entitled to represent a defendant if satisfied that the defendant is indeed indigent (G.L.1956 [1981 Reenactment] § 12-15-9). However, if the Public Defender determines that the department cannot represent a defendant or that a conflict of interest would arise in doing so, then the Public Defender seeks the advice of the referring court in determining its capacity to represent the defendant within acceptable dictates of advocacy. *32In such cases, the court may assign private counsel to represent the defendant. See, e.g., Superior Court Rules of Criminal Procedure 44; District Court Rules of Criminal Procedure 44. Payment for the services of such court-appointed private counsel is ordered and approved by the court. The Public Defender, however, is paid from public funds specifically appropriated for that purpose.
Thus, an attorney-client relationship is established between the Public Defender’s office and a defendant by the court’s referral of the defendant to the department and a determination of the defendant’s current financial eligibility for the department’s services on a case-by-case basis. It does not follow, therefore, that a defendant, once having been referred by the court to the Public Defender for representation in a particular criminal case, has created for himself or herself an attorney-client relationship with the department which obtains when he or she is subsequently arrested and charged with another offense. However pro forma a court referral and an update of each defendant’s eligibility may appear, the need for the fiscal accountability of the court for this aspect of justice is fundamental.
My brother Kelleher suggests in his dissenting opinion that in the light of constitutional developments set forth in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), § 12-15-3 should be amended to provide for a different method of creation of attorney-client relationship between the Public Defender and a potential client.
For reasons set forth in the majority opinion, with which I concur, I do not believe that Miranda mandates such a result. However, if our colleague believes the statute should be amended as he so often has observed in prior opinions, such a request is within legislative rather than judicial discretion.