People v. District Court of El Paso County

ERICKSON, Justice,

specially concurring:

The dismissal of the indictment in this case prior to trial on the grounds that court-appointed counsel for the indigent defendant would not be adequately compensated was, at best, courageous because, to the best of our knowledge, dismissal is not supported by precedent from any court in any jurisdiction. The trial court concluded, after reviewing defense motions, that the limitation on fees paid to court-appointed counsel would cause a denial of effective assistance of counsel and a denial of equal protection of the law that required dismissal of the…