Lawyers for the recently created Office of Indigent Legal Services delivered their first oral arguments before the South Dakota Supreme Court on Tuesday in Pierre.
It was a watershed moment for the state’s public defense agency, a $1.5 million, five-attorney operation that the state court system’s leaders expect to deliver a net savings to taxpayers and improved legal services for South Dakotans who have the right to a lawyer but can’t afford one.
In South Dakota, counties are responsible for the cost of court-appointed attorneys. That typically means contracting with private defense lawyers, who are often paid mileage fees atop hourly rates to represent clients in cases that originate far from their local offices.
When lawmakers began pondering a state public defender’s office in 2023, county costs for indigent legal services had doubled in the space of a decade. The Legislature endorsed the office in 2024, and former Minnehaha County Public Defender Christopher Miles was hired to lead it that fall.
Miles and the appellate public defenders now employed by the office deal with criminal appeals, as well as appeals in abuse and neglect cases. Counties remain responsible for trial-level legal fees, but handing off appeals to the state is expected to save them $2.1 million a year.
Steven Jensen, chief justice of the South Dakota Supreme Court, signaled in January that the office may look to expand and take on “high-level felony cases” in some counties in the future, in hopes of preventing potential costly errors on the front end and improving efficiencies in the system as a whole.
Miles told lawmakers in January that his attorneys had taken more than 100 cases from all over the state, including four appeals in murder cases.
Questions on juror removal
Deputy Appellate Public Defender Beau Blouin presented a murder case appeal on Tuesday. Blouin represents David Shangreaux Jr., who wants a new trial following his conviction for second-degree murder in a 2023 stabbing death in Pierre.
Shangreaux is Native American, and Blouin argued that the prosecutor improperly dismissed a Native American juror — one of two empaneled for possible selection.
The U.S. Supreme Court barred the practice of striking jurors for race alone in 1986.
You can read the full article at South Dakota Searchlight.