State ex rel. McCrimmon v. Lester

ENGLAND, Justice.

By petition for a writ of mandamus, we are presented with two interrelated questions affecting indigent criminal defendants and the costs of their defense. Relators are indigent defendants represented by the public defender’s office in criminal cases which were docketed for trial in November before respondents, judges in the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit (Monroe County).

In November 1976, respondents issued an administrative order requiring court, or court executive, approval of all applications for payment of court reporters’ fees incident to the taking of depositions. In March…