Bice v. Louisiana Public Defender Board

CARL E. STEWART, Circuit Judge:

After Steven Bice was charged with public intoxication and public inhabitation, he was brought before the Municipal Court of the City of New Orleans and qualified for representation by a public defender. Louisiana’s funding mechanism for indigent defense requires indigent defendants who are found guilty, plead guilty, or plead nolo contendere to pay a $35 fee at the conclusion of their cases, but it does not require defendants who are exonerated to pay the $35 fee. Bice brought suit against the Louisiana Public Defender Board (the “Board”), arguing that this fee…