Mississippi State Appropriations Committee Chairman Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg, discusses legislation on Project Atlas, an economic development plan for a tech company that intends to spend $10 billion to build two data centers in the central part of the state, to members of the Senate Appropriations Committee at the Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson, Miss., Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
- Mississippi Senators amended a House bill that would have allowed for indigent counsel fees to be raised five times their current levels. Instead, the Senate version caps fees at three times.
A drastically reduced indigent counsel fee bill passed the Senate floor Thursday morning, slashing the House proposed increase by thousands of dollars.
Ten senators, Democrats and Republicans, voted present when Senate Appropriation Chairman Briggs Hopson (R) requested passage on the morning roll call.
In the House version of HB 623, attorney compensation per circuit court case for indigent counsel was increased to $5,000, up from the current $1,000. If the case is not appealed to or does not originate in a court of record, the maximum compensation was capped at $1,000, up from $200. In capital cases, two attorneys could be appointed at a rate increased to $10,000 per case, up from the current $2,000. If that capital case were appealed to the state supreme court, the attorney’s fees for service could not exceed $5,000, up from $1,000. This would continue to be in addition to all judge-approved expenses paid for by the county out of its general fund, the two-page bill reads.
However, the Senate’s strike-all amendment reduced the cap on the fees to three times the current payment instead of the five times in the House version.
Hopson said the counties pay the indigent counsel bill, not the state, adding that not all counties in Mississippi have public defenders and must rely on indigent counsel.
“Surprisingly to me, they have not had any pay increase in their pay in, I think, 45 years,” he said. “I think they were due for a bump in the pay for representing indigents.”
Several senators asked questions on the bill, including Senator Angela Hill (R).
“What I am wondering is if this will actually incentivize some of these attorneys to actually work for the clients. I get so many complaints from people who have court-appointed attorneys, that they don’t do anything for them, that they can’t even get ahold of them, they can’t talk to them, they don’t prepare for the cases,” she said, adding, “I am a little hesitant to increase this.”
Hopson, an attorney himself, said attorneys take an oath to be a zealous representative for their clients. He said the pay is “woefully low” and that Mississippi has “a problem with representation” in public defense and indigent counsel.
Hill asked for explanation of how public defenders and indigent counsel differ.
Senator Hopson explained that public defenders are not serving throughout the state, mentioning the prospect for a pilot program as put forward by the Mississippi Office of State Public Defender, while indigent counsel are attorneys assigned to cases by a local court.
READ MORE: Proposed public defender pilot program aims to better represent indigent defendants in Mississippi
When the vote was taken, the following ten senators voted present on the bill:
- Jason Barrett (R)
- Mike Thompson (R)
- Angela Hill (R)
- Daniel Sparks (R)
- Derrick Simmons (D)
- Joseph Seymour (R)
- Benjamin Suber (R)
- Kathy Chism (R)
- Gary Brumfield (R)
- Dennis DeBar (R)
The House could not concur with the Senate version or invite conference on the bill.
Daniel Tyson
