Lacey v. State Board of Registration for the Healing Arts

The pertinent statute is Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated, Section 2505 (Supp. 1968), which provides for the appointment of legal counsel for indigents who are charged with capital offenses or non-capital felonies and for the payment to the appointed counsel of certain sums after an indictment. No provision is made either for the payment to an appointed attorney who rendered services when the indigent was not indicted or for the payment to an attorney appointed to defend an indigent charged with a misdemeanor. Therefore, statutory authority for the payment of the fees in the present case does not exist. If, however, the judiciary has such authority then it is inherent or the power flows from the general terms of Mississippi Constitution 261 (1890), as amended in 1966.