Appeals court denies writ for prosecutors hoping to avoid defense work payments
A Missouri appeals court denied the prosecution team’s request to avoid paying for some of a man’s defense work.
The Eastern District Court of Appeals denied the writ of prohibition that the attorney general’s office asked for in the Pablo Serrano-Vitorino case. St. Louis Circuit Judge Steven Ohmer ordered prosecutors pay $40,000 toward mitigation research for Serrano, who faces the death penalty.
The public defender’s office responded on Friday to the request made by the attorney general’s office in the case of Pablo Serrano-Vitorino, claiming the judge was within his rights to make such an order.
The public defender’s office argued that the mitigation work was necessary for Serrano to get a fair trial. The attorney general appealed the January decision last month, claiming Ohmer overstepped his authority to force the attorney general or the Montgomery County prosecutor to pay for the defense team’s work.
Serrano is accused of killing Randy Nordman in 2016. Police suspect Serrano also killed four people prior to that in Kansas City, Kansas.
The response, written by Craig Johnston, said circuit courts have discretion in ordering public funds for criminal defense. Johnston pointed to a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling in 2016 that allowed public defender clients to sue counties for underfunding the offices.
“Just because MSPD is able to provide some funding for some experts for some defendants does not mean that the State of Missouri has satisfied its Constitutional obligations to every defendant, such as Serrano-Vitorino,” the response said.
Missouri’s public defender office pays nearly the least amount of money per case of any state, according to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in Missouri against the state over its public defender budget.
The state House of Representatives budgeted more than $49 million for the public defender system for fiscal year 2019, $4 million more than what the office received this year.
