An article buried in today's New York Times, Red Ink in States Beginning to Hurt Economic Recovery, contains this gem:

Minnesota even came up with a new one: public defenders are no longer furnished free; defendants now pay $50 or more.

We haven't heard of this before. It is very troubling. Thoughts?

Update: NLADA has more:

Under this new law every public defender client in Minnesota -- normally allowed counsel free of charge -- will be saddled with a "copay" to be assessed from a rigid schedule. In district court, clients will incur debts of $200 for a felony, $100 for a gross misdemeanor and $50 for a misdemeanor. In juvenile court, clients will incur debts of $100 for a juvenile adjudication and $200 for a child protection adjudication. The law imposes this obligation at the time a public defender is appointed, and there is no provision for its waiver in the case of undue financial hardship.

The problem with the law lies in its flat-rate schedule and the removal of the judge's discretion to determine whether the copay would work a manifest financial hardship upon the defendant. Absent a fair, means-tested rate schedule, the public defender copays will really become application fees that many will be unable to pay. These copays will lead some truly indigent people to choose to forgo counsel.

There was already a law on the books that assessed a reasonable $28 copay for public defender clients, and allowed the judge to waive that fee based on indigency or hardship. There is also a current means-tested recoupment statute, allowing for a portion of a person's net income to be repaid. Those statutes are constitutional, and fair. But imposing a flat fee upon a desperate applicant, whether or not he can afford it, degrades that which is fundamental and essential to fair trials in our nation -- the right to counsel.