Latest news with #EricFredericksen
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Demand for capital defense attorneys may soon skyrocket in Idaho due to new law
Earlier this year, Idaho legislators passed a bill to allow some cases of lewd conduct with child under age 12 with aggravating circumstances to be punishable by death, despite knowing the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled a similar law unconstitutional. (Getty Images) This story was first published by Idaho Reports on May 9, 2025. Earlier this year, Idaho legislators passed a bill to allow some cases of lewd conduct with child under age 12 with aggravating circumstances to be punishable by death, despite knowing the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled a similar law unconstitutional. The bill did not allocate any additional money for the Idaho State Public Defender's Office. Instead, the fiscal note says the office will have additional expenditures should a defendant be assigned a public defender by the court. This could be a major flaw. The challenge is more about more than just money. It's about meeting what is required by law and agency rules – and when the death penalty is a possible sentence, those requirements are stricter than other criminal defense cases. The Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution entitles all criminal defendants to a public attorney if they cannot afford one. But prior state rule and national legal guidance say defendants who are facing the death penalty require more representation. The court grants those defendants a lead counselor and co-counselor, sometimes referred to as the second chair attorney. In 2024, prosecutors filed 382 charges of lewd conduct with a child under the age of 16, according to Idaho Supreme Court data. That doesn't mean all of those led to convictions, and not all of those victims were 12 or younger. Compare that to the 30 first-degree murder charges filed in 2024, according to Idaho Supreme Court data. Until House Bill 380's passage, first-degree murder was the only crime punishable by death in Idaho. Not all 30 of those charges would have been death penalty cases, as some would not have had necessary aggravating circumstances or a plea agreement could have been reached. Still, that's less than one tenth of the charges filed of lewd conduct with a child under the age of 16. Under the Public Defense Commission's now expired rules, any defendant who is charged with a crime that is potentially punishable by death required representation from a 'capital qualified defending attorney.' The new Idaho Office of the Public Defender hasn't yet adopted rules. Capital qualified attorneys have advanced familiarity with the laws around capital mitigation and jury selection methods. They also meet or exceed American Bar Association Guidelines and criminal defense experience. In an April interview with Idaho Reports, State Public Defender Eric Fredericksen said his understanding was that the Public Defense Commission's rules became defunct after his office opened, but added he was not part of that decision-making process. The Public Defense Commission first established rules in 2016 regarding caseloads and training for public defenders after a massive lawsuit, Tucker v. Idaho, found Idaho's public defense system to be insufficient. The lawsuit is what led Idaho to the eventual establishment of a statewide public defense system. Until the Idaho Office of the Public Defender opened in October 2024, individual counties funded public defense. Under the commission's rules, lead counsel in a capital case needed at least 10 years in criminal defense and felony jury experience and have served as lead or co-counsel in at least one tried capital case to verdict, among other requirements. Co-counsel must have at least five years in criminal defense and felony jury experience and have served as lead or co-counsel in at least one tried capital case to verdict, among other requirements. The new Idaho Office of the Public Defender has been following the guidelines of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, but has no formal state rules of its own. Those association guidelines require less criminal defense experience than the state's former rules, but still more than non-capital felony defense standards. A handful of national organizations offer trainings for capital cases, but Fredericksen notes that making the case for life, as it's often referred to by defense attorneys, is different in murder cases than it would be for lewd conduct cases. There's a playbook for defense attorneys in capital murder cases. Having the death penalty on the table for lewd conduct creates a different scenario. Why the extra rules? A person's life is on the line. As of April 23, Idaho had 13 attorneys who are qualified to be lead counsel on a capital case. Five are employees of the State Public Defender's Office and eight are private attorneys. There are an additional 18 Idaho attorneys who qualify to be second chair on a capital case. That means there are only 13 potential lawyers qualified to represent the people charged under the new crime of aggravated lewd conduct with a minor younger than age 12, on top of the other capital cases that may already be on their plates. Prosecutors won't necessarily seek the death penalty as punishment against every person who is charged with lewd conduct with a minor under 12, but the defense attorneys have an obligation to begin preparing as if it were at the time the charge is filing. 'The moment the charge of (aggravated lewd and lascivious) with a minor under 12 is filed, regardless of whether a death notice is filed, we will begin treating it as a death penalty case,' Fredericksen said. 'So, two attorneys will be handling the case, find a mitigation expert, we find an investigator. You have to start that work on Day 1 because the prosecution starts that work on Day 1.' Fredericksen's office remained neutral on the bill. He did write to sponsors Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, chairman of the House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee, and House Assistant Minority Leader Josh Tanner, R-Eagle, on March 14, stating that he did not have data on how many of the victims in cases they represented were 12 or younger, nor did he have data on how many of them had aggravating circumstances. On March 18, the State Appellate Public Defender Erik Lehtinen wrote a letter to Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee Chairman Todd Lakey, R-Nampa, and cc'd the bill's co-sponsors and Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee co-chairs Sen. Scott Grow and Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, about concerns about the bill's potential impact on his office's budget. Idaho Reports obtained a copy of the letter. The State Appellate Public Defender's Office handles cases post-conviction for appeals. Lehtinen estimated his office would receive, on average, two capital lewd conduct cases a year, in addition to the capital murder case appeals his office already handles. 'I estimate that once the new death penalty scheme fully ramps up, the SAPD would require at least $2,948,000 in additional ongoing funding – a 72.2% increase to the SAPD's current annual appropriation,' wrote Lehtinen in his March 18 letter. That number included 14 new employees, litigation expenses and conflict costs. Lehtinen noted it did not include one-time costs, such as computers for the employees, or paying Idaho State Bar dues. 'This increase in capital cases would require the SAPD to hire at least 14 additional full-time employees in its Capital Litigation Unit: four lead attorneys, four 'second chair' attorneys, two investigators, two mitigation specialists and two administrative assistants or paralegals,' Lehtinen wrote. Fredericksen told Idaho Reports that because public defense is so reactive to what the prosecution does, he couldn't give a fiscal impact estimate. His office has begun accepting applications for attorneys who may have enough experience to become death penalty qualified. But if half of the lewd conduct charges filed in 2024 involved children under age 12, he said, Idaho doesn't have enough public, private, and civil attorneys to handle that case load. The Idaho Legislature approved an $83 million budget for Fredericksen's office for fiscal year 2026. About $32 million of that is an enhancement budget for needed personnel costs, institutional offices in Elmore, Shoshone, Jerome and Benewah counties and more funding for contract attorneys. The budget doesn't specifically single out allocations for more death penalty-qualified attorneys. When the new law goes into effect on July 1, it will create a new crime called 'aggravated lewd conduct under 16' which creates a new mandatory minimum of 25 years for the crime of lewd conduct with a child ages 13 to 15. The option of pursuing the death penalty would be left to the individual county prosecutor in cases where the child is 12 or younger. The crime of lewd conduct with a child under 16 is already punishable by life in prison. The bill outlines a series of 17 aggravating factors that make a suspect eligible for the death penalty, including the victim being kidnapped or trafficked, or the suspect engaging in the act three or more times. If a jury, or the court if a jury is waived, finds two aggravating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt and if the death penalty is not sought, the court shall impose a life sentence with a minimum period of no less than 30 years in prison. Public defenders who testified in committee took issue with some of the items listed as aggravating factors, including if the defendant was in 'a position of trust' over the victim because that could be applicable to many sexual assaults of children. Public defenders also objected to including 'force or coercion' as an aggravating factor, as children cannot legally consent, so every case could arguably be 'force or coercion.' In committee, the Idaho Prosecutor's Association supported the list of aggravating circumstances, saying they were based off Florida and Tennessee's laws. 'I think it's fair to say that with the nature of the aggravating factors, a prosecutor could make a decision that just about every case would meet those aggravating factors,' Fredericksen said. 'Right or wrong, they could make the case to move forward with the aggravating factors under the statute.' Idaho legislators passed this law knowing that in the 2008 decision Kennedy v. Louisiana, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that the Eighth Amendment prohibits the death penalty for non-fatal sex crimes, even if the crime involved brutality and young children. Still, Florida passed a similar law in 2023, but to date, no one has been sentenced to death for child sexual assault. Instead, prosecutors have reached plea agreements with lesser punishments than executions, such as life in prison. Tennessee passed a law similar to Florida's in 2024, but it hasn't yet been used. During the session, Skaug repeatedly called the Idaho bill a 'test case' as the makeup of SCOTUS has changed since 2008. He also believes prosecutors will only use the charge for 'the worst of the worst.' Of the four justices who dissented in Kennedy v. Louisiana, three – Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas – are still on the bench. None of the five in the 2008 majority are currently serving. Regardless of the current court makeup, if someone is sentenced to death under this new law, it will almost certainly end up challenged in court. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Idaho governor approves increase in state public defense budget
Idaho State Public Defender Eric Fredericksen photographed in Boise on November 15, 2023. (Otto Kitsinger for Idaho Capital Sun) Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed a bill on Friday approving a budget increase for the state's new Office of the State Public Defender. The office was established in October to consolidate the public defense offices in all 44 counties into a new statewide agency. The agency was appropriated $52 million in its first year to cover the remaining nine months of the fiscal year, but it has since faced budget shortfalls. Senate Bill 1202 addresses those shortfalls, adding $6.7 million in supplemental funding to the 2025 fiscal year budget to pay for transcript costs, additional personnel and contracting costs and funding for Child Protective Act appropriations. It also enhances the 2026 fiscal year budget to $83.2 million. In a blog post on Tuesday, the Office of the State Public Defender thanked the governor, his staff and bill sponsors, Reps. Dustin Manwaring, R-Pocatello; Jon Weber, R-Rexburg; and Sens. Kevin Cook, R-Idaho Falls; and Todd Lakey, R-Nampa, for supporting a budget increase. The approved 2026 budget is $5 million less than the amount the governor first proposed after negotiations within the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee. That's largely because rather than raising the hourly rate for contract attorneys from $100 to $150 — as the governor proposed — the Legislature settled on raising it to $125 per hour. Idaho public defender's proposed budget seeks increases to address defense in rural counties Of the 39,000 cases the agency has had to cover since it began operation, 9,300 of the cases require a contract attorney. The raise is meant to improve public defense coverage in Idaho's rural counties, which largely rely on contract attorneys. Likewise, the budget is raising the rate for contracted investigators, who help contract attorneys, from $65 to $85 per hour. Attorney shortages remains the agency's biggest challenge, agency spokesman Patrick Orr told the Sun. The budget appropriation seeks to address that challenge, by adding $6.4 million in merit-based salary increases, increasing pay for attorneys handling complex litigation and making wages competitive with similar agencies like the Idaho Office of the Attorney General. After the agency took over Idaho public defense, the agency changed its pay structure based on an attorney's length of service. This led several experienced attorneys in Idaho's more populated regions to resign after receiving pay cuts ranging from $5,000 to $40,000, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported. 'We need more attorneys,' Orr said. 'That's why we are so thankful for the support from the governor's office and the Legislature. We're confident our new salary matrix and increased hourly rate for contract attorneys makes us competitive. Public defense is one of those vitally important jobs in society where you have to find the right people to do the work. Public defense is not an easy job. It's hard. But it matters.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
CBC
25-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
From poems in stone to a chime that plays Loverboy, Vancouver is full of great public art
Destination: Art is a series uncovering some of Canada's unique, unexpected and under-the-radar art experiences. With spring in the air, adventure on the mind and many looking to explore more Canada, CBC Arts is adding some new attractions for readers who want to discover the treasures hiding in their own backyard. Public art can teach us a lot about the history of a city. And in Vancouver, it preserves all kinds of stories from the past — both the good and the bad — and takes on new meanings as our perspectives change with time. There are pieces tucked in back alleys and built into their surroundings, and others meant to be heard and not seen. You may not realize something is a piece of art at all without an explanation. Maybe that's part of the hidden beauty of it. CBC Arts talked to experts who have explored some of the best public art Vancouver has to offer. So next time you pass through these areas, take a minute to look a little closer at these pieces — they might have something to say about the very ground you're walking on. Weekend Chime (2021) Where is it? 800 Robson St. Vancouver's head of public art, Eric Fredericksen, says that although artist Brady Cranfield's Weekend Chime is conceptually very simple, it's taken longer to realize than most of the projects he's worked on for the city. It can also only be experienced for two seconds each week. In the middle of Robson Square, four red horns are mounted on a lighting pole and connected to a carillon chime system that makes sounds similar to church bells. It plays the same two notes every Friday at 5 p.m. — some might recognize it as the melody sung on the word "weekend" in Vancouver-based band Loverboy's Working for the Weekend. "The idea of the weekend [is] something that's really important in labour history," says Fredericksen. "It was not a concept for manual labourers, and it's often connected by people to the rise in unionization — the declaration of workers that they deserve days of rest." With more and more people working remotely, it's become harder to separate the professional from the rest of our lives. Work can happen wherever we are, and this jingle is a reminder that maybe we should be thinking more consciously about when we stop doing it. "It's meant to be this prod, to say, 'Why don't you think about stopping work? Why don't you go for a walk? Why don't you call your friend?'" says Fredericksen. stillness & motion (2013) Any piece of public art that involves a digital aspect can be hard to pull off, according to Cameron Cartiere, a professor and researcher specializing in public art at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Even if an idea is conceptually strong, she says, there are "seldom enough funds, or any funds, for maintenance [of the piece]." But stillness & motion has managed to hold up for over a decade now, and it's one of her favourites. Installed on the glass walls of a pedestrian overpass, it features a translucent image of a rookery on one side and an LED panel on the other. In the daytime, you get an intimate view of life-sized herons resting in their nests. At night, that LED panel shows a bird, animated to beat its wings in a continuous loop. The artists, Jacqueline Metz and Nancy Chew, see it as an observation of "how culture interprets the land and how the land shapes culture" — it contrasts stillness with movement, and natural landscape with city life. Urban Indian (2000) Where is it? CRAB Park, 101 East Waterfront Rd. Alasdair Butcher, founder of Vancouver DeTours, runs walking tours revolving around art and what it can tell us about our city's history — even the often-overlooked pieces hidden in parks and back alleys. At the entrance to CRAB Park, there's a stone inscribed with Urban Indian, a poem by Fred Arrance, the former director of Indigenous non-profit Aboriginal Front Door Society. The poem details how Indigenous peoples' customs and traditions become lost as they navigate a society that is built to suppress them. It was installed in 2000 as part of Portrait V2K, a project that collected stories representative of Vancouver at the turn of the millennium and saw multiple plaques and story stones placed throughout the city. Arrance's activism was one of the reasons why CRAB Park went from being an industrial dumping ground to one of few waterfront parks on the east side of Vancouver, Butcher says. He thinks this heart-shaped stone positioned right at the entrance is a "really beautiful" way to honour Arrance's work. "[Urban Indian] acknowledg[es] that the city has been built over unceded Coast Salish territory," says Butcher. "And the fact that it's on a rock, on the very foundational materials of territory, of the earth, of the land — it's a very different representation of Indigeneity than a lot of the stuff that you'll see in the more famous works." "It's a much more political piece, and one that talks about the challenges facing Indigenous residents of the city today." Where is it? Vancouver Art Gallery, 750 Hornby St. Next time you walk by the Vancouver Art Gallery, look up — you'll see art before you even step inside. Known for the iconic East Van Cross, Ken Lum is also the artist behind Four Boats Stranded. In this work, he "play[s] with tensions around racial identity in ways that I think many people would not get away with," says Fredericksen. On the roof of the gallery, there are scaled-down versions of four prominent boats in Vancouver's history: a First Nations longboat, Captain Vancouver's ship, the Komagata Maru and a cargo ship that carried migrants from Fujian province in China. Each boat is painted a single colour — red, white, black and yellow, respectively — inviting viewers to reflect on colonial stereotyping of racial, cultural and historical identification. The building is also symbolic. "The art gallery was originally built as the courthouse, and it's this neoclassical building that was really meant to sort of assert colonial power over space, out all the way to the farthest western edges of the empire," says Butcher. "And in those days, there really was only one story that mattered, the 'official' story, which was the British, Anglo-Canadian story." Even now, the gallery remains a site of protest and mourning; from 2021 to 2023, its southern steps featured a temporary memorial for the 215 First Nations children whose remains were found at a Kamloops residential school site. "[This piece] has all these different tensions within it that [are] touching on really intense points in Vancouver's history, and is doing that at the centre of the city, at a site of protest," says Fredericksen. "I would love to have more discussion around that … more people knowing that it's there and being able to engage with it and consider what it might mean to them or to the city." Presence (2020) Where is it? 2286 Ontario St. When the pandemic forced Canada to close its borders, Argentine mural artist Graciela Gonçalves Da Silva — who also uses the handle " Animalitoland" — was stuck in Vancouver, so she decided she might as well make the best of her time here. She reached out to the Vancouver Mural Festival, a partner of Butcher's DeTours, and they arranged a wall for her. In light pinks and yellows, she painted a vaguely humanoid creature who seems "innocent, but also a little bit weary," according to Butcher, as it cradles a gloomy-looking ball of darkness with outlines of facial features — a visual representation of how it's important to embrace uncomfortable emotions and learn from them. For Gonçalves Da Silva, working on the mural was a way to explore the uncertainty and isolation of that summer, and to connect with any passersby who were hungry for some kind of human connection. She put up a sign encouraging people to ask her questions as she painted, and passed out mini-journals where people could give her adjectives to describe how they were feeling, which she'd take back home with her at the end of each day. "She would translate them into Spanish, and then she would get to sort of understand what people were saying," says Butcher. "And that's very exhausting. When you are learning a language, when you get to the point where you're learning the definitions of emotions, you kind of feel them." Hope Through Ashes: A Requiem for Hogan's Alley (2020) Where is it? Dunsmuir Viaduct Artist reclaiming Vancouver's lost Black community through mural 5 years ago Duration 2:35 Hogan's Alley was the unofficial name for an intersection at the edge of Strathcona that used to be a cultural hub for Vancouver's Black population. It was destroyed in the 1960s to make way for the Georgia and Dunsmuir Viaducts that connect downtown and East Vancouver. Anthony Joseph's mural Hope Through Ashes: A Requiem for Hogan's Alley pays tribute to people who were once pillars of Hogan's Alley. The mural was part of the Black Strathcona Resurgence Project, led by artist and curator Krystal Paraboo in partnership with the Vancouver Mural Festival, which brought together Black artists and businesses to work toward reclaiming the neighbourhood. For this mural, Joseph painted directly onto the side of the Dunsmuir Viaduct — the entire piece spans about 45 metres in length. "What [Joseph] has done with this piece is painted the history of that neighbourhood through a series of vignettes, mainly around [the] main personalities and characters of that community," says Butcher. One of these figures is sprinter Barbara Howard, the first Black female athlete to represent Canada in international competition, who later taught in Strathcona and was the first racialized person to be hired as a teacher by the Vancouver School Board. "I love murals [and] art pieces that are really good storytelling devices, because … as tour guides, it really helps us, particularly for something like that where the neighbourhood is not there," says Butcher. As you move down the overpass, the mural's content "goes chronologically, right up until the culmination of the destruction by the city." "It's [painted] on the instrument of the community's destruction," he says. "It's very powerful."
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Idaho public defender's proposed budget seeks increases to address defense in rural counties
Idaho State Public Defender Eric Fredericksen answers questions from the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, January 28, 2025. (Mia Maldonado / Idaho Capital Sun) The Office of the Idaho State Public Defender is seeking a significant budget increase in the next fiscal year because its original budget was based on caseloads during the COVID-19 pandemic, Idaho State Public Defender Eric Fredericksen told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Tuesday. The committee, or JFAC, sets budgets for every state agency and department. In 2022, Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed House Bill 735 into law, which moved the responsibility of funding public defense from the counties to the state. House Bill 236, signed into law the following year, created the Office of the Idaho State Public Defender to consolidate the county-based public defense system into a statewide system. On Oct. 1, the new agency began taking on cases. The agency was appropriated $52 million its first year, but it has faced funding shortfalls since the transition. That's because the agency's original budget was set when the caseload for public defenders was low because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fredericksen told JFAC, and caseloads have since significantly increased. The agency is now seeking legislative approval for a supplemental $8 million for the remainder of the 2025 fiscal year to cover representation to parents who qualify for the Child Protective Act, transcript costs, and personnel and contracting costs. And for the 2026 fiscal year, which starts in July, Little recommended an $88 million budget. Fredericksen said a budget increase would allow the office to increase pay based on merit, contract with attorneys in rural counties, and add new institutional offices in Benewah, Elmore, Jerome and Shoshone counties. Those four new offices would increase public defense coverage, relieve the pressure on contract attorneys, and support a uniform system across the state, Fredericksen said in a letter to JFAC on Monday. 'We believe the governor's recommended budget request … will provide us with the resources we need to expand and improve on our initial work,' Fredericksen wrote in the letter. In the letter to JFAC, Fredericksen addressed what the new agency has accomplished since it began taking on cases in October, including: Gotten rid of flat-fee contracts Created a statewide case management system Given all public defenders and contract attorneys access to Lexis legal research platform at no cost Equalized salaries across the state, with nearly 77% of public defenders receiving raises Established 12 institutional offices across Idaho But progress for the agency has been complex. The overhaul of Idaho's public defense system triggered a wave of public defender resignations, particularly in the state's largest counties where attorneys cited frustration with pay cuts, loss of mentorship from experienced attorneys, declining office morale and disorganization in the new system, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported. 'October 1 (was) difficult,' Fredericksen said. 'We walked into 1,300 withdrawals in cases.' Many of those withdrawals were because the agency got rid of flat fee contracts for attorneys in Idaho, which led to those case withdrawals. Fredericksen told JFAC that flat fee contracts are unethical. Since then, Fredericksen said he's had to appear in court, along with his district attorneys who usually manage public defenders. From a business perspective, Rep. Josh Tanner, R-Eagle, asked what the Legislature can do to make sure Fredericksen and his district attorneys are more focused on management rather than having to appear at court. 'Is it just money?' Tanner asked. Idaho governor recommends $88 million for State Public Defender FY 2026 budget 'It is money,' Fredericksen said. 'We've lost a lot of contractors. We've lost a lot of senior employees and institutional losses. Do I want to be in Jerome, Gooding and Twin Falls on a daily basis? That's not the best use of my time. The best use of my time is to send out my district defenders and let them do their jobs, and get them out of court so they're not handling cases.' Fredericksen said one of the agency's biggest challenges is finding attorneys to represent clients in rural Idaho. To address this, the budget proposal includes an increase in the hourly rate for contract attorneys from $100 to $150, which would alleviate the shortage of legal representation in rural areas of the state, he said. Sen. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, said she understands that the Legislature underestimated the budget for the office. 'Regardless of where we are now, I think we could've done a better job in the Legislature setting you up for a little more success,' Wintrow said. The proposed budget will be voted on by JFAC at a later date. After the committee approves it, the budget will be included in appropriation bills for the Idaho House and Senate to consider and vote on at a later time. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
