Conservative Party joins fight for New York indigent defense funding

New York Daily News:

It isn't often that the state Conservative Party is in agreement with liberal groups, but that is the case when it comes to urging Gov. Cuomo to sign a bill that would gradually shift the funding of legal services for the poor from the localities on to the state.

The Conservative Party... said that a requirement that the state's counties, including the five boroughs, fund legal defense programs for the poor amounts to an unfunded mandate that is choking the finances of the localities.....

The bill has won the support across the political spectrum....The New York Civil Liberties Union, the state Catholic Conference, NAACP, Lambda Legal Defense Fund, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Innocence Project and the Brennan Center for Justice have also urged Cuomo to sign the bill.