Jerome Haggins v. State Florida

The Public Defender of the Tenth Judicial Circuit, who prosecutes appeals in this court for public defenders throughout the district, has filed identical motions to withdraw as counsel in 247 pending criminal appeals. We consolidate these appeals only for the purpose of ruling on the motions. The public defender alleges a current caseload of 963 noncapital appeals and says that he is being appointed to an average of 84 new appeals each month. However, he asserts that his present appellate staff can effectively brief an average of only 50 cases per month according to statewide standards established by the Florida Public Defenders Association and the Governor's Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals. He contends that he does not have sufficient funding to employ additional persons to assist in alleviating his caseload. He suggests that his inability to expeditiously process all of the appeals may place him in the position of affording ineffective counsel to his clients. See Kiernan v. State, 485 So.2d 460 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986).