“Minnesota Attorney General and Public Defenders Receive Boost in Funding”

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Millions of additional dollars are working their way through Minnesota legislation to improve both the ability of Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office to prosecute violent crimes and the state’s public defender system to fill staffing shortages alleviate the situation that almost led to a strike last year.

Ellison put together the team that convicted former Minneapolis official Derek Chauvin in the 2021 murder of George Floyd, but the Democratic attorney general had been unable to convince a divided legislature to give him more money for four years give to hire more prosecutors. Now that Democrats control both houses of the statehouse, Ellison is anxious to get that money.

The House voted 73-55 Monday night to quickly give the attorney general’s office $269,000 from the state’s $17.6 billion budget surplus, and thereafter an additional $2 million a year on top of its regular budget to give budget. The Senate approved the money last week and Ellison expects Democratic Gov. Tim Walz to sign it soon.

Ellison’s office was limited to just one criminal prosecutor when he took office in 2019 after years of budgetary pressures. He was able to increase the number to three, but the former Republican majority in the Senate refused to fund any more funds, despite a large budget surplus. The Republican legislature wanted him to reassign attorneys who worked on consumer protection and business regulation instead.

The office had no fewer than 12 prosecutors in 1998. The law allows Ellison to hire about seven new attorneys, and he said he hopes to add them in the next six to eight weeks.

“Today we really want to rebuild it,” Ellison said at a press conference ahead of the debate. “Today we recognize that the districts need the help. We see the rise in crime. We recognize the financial and fiscal pressures on our counties. And most of the time we recognize the pain of the victims.”

Democratic House Majority Leader Jamie Long of Minneapolis said the money will allow the attorney general’s office to take on about 70 to 80 additional cases annually.

Staffing became an issue during the 2022 campaign, in which unsuccessful GOP candidate Jim Schultz accused Ellison of being too soft on crime. Ellison repeatedly pointed out that by law his office could only take on a criminal case at the request of local prosecutors or the governor.

When the Attorney General’s Office prosecutes criminal cases, they tend to be complex cases in rural counties where local prosecutors lack resources and expertise, such as: B. the shooting of a police officer in Albert Lea. Or there were politically charged cases, like the Chauvin trial or the successful manslaughter charge against Officer Kim Potter in the Taser mix-up that killed Daunte Wright. Ellison noted that 44 of Minnesota’s 87 counties have three or fewer prosecutors.

Earlier Monday, the House voted unanimously to give the State Board of Public Defense more funding to meet the American Bar Association’s recommendations for manageable caseloads. The bill includes $154 million for the fiscal year beginning July 1 and $164 million for the next, setting the board’s full budget for the next two years. A similar bill is sailing through Senate committees, and Walz is also scheduled to sign it.

Democratic chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jamie Becker-Finn of Roseville, told reporters it’s an annual increase of about $50 million from current levels. The extra money had bipartisan support in the 2022 session but stalled amid partisan deadlock on other issues.

“The integrity of our entire justice system rests on the system of public defense,” Becker-Finn said. “You want to talk about freedom? None of these rights mean anything if you do not have legal counsel and adequate legal counsel. Results should not be dictated based on your access to wealth.”

The state’s 470 public defenders arrived within days of leaving, shutting down much of the state’s court system before a settlement was reached last March. They said they have been marginalized by routinely high case numbers that have become unmanageable amid the coronavirus pandemic. They also complained that their salaries fell far short of what prosecutors sitting across from them earned. The money will help the board raise salaries and hire lawyers.

Steve Karnowski, The Associated Press

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