An equal justice statue stands outside the doors of the Minnehaha County Courthouse in Sioux Falls. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
A deputy public defender from Sioux Falls will head up the recently created state Office of Indigent Legal Services, according to an announcement Wednesday from the Unified Judicial System.
Christopher Miles, 35, will leave the Minnehaha County Public Defender’s Office to lead a team of four lawyers, a paralegal and a legal secretary. The office in Sioux Falls will primarily be tasked with representing those who cannot afford an attorney in their appeals to the South Dakota Supreme Court, but will also serve as a data hub for public defense and work on ways to improve its delivery across the state.
Lawmakers signed off on the new office this year, as well as on the creation of a Commission on Indigent Legal Services, at the urging of state Supreme Court Chief Justice Steven Jensen. The office was the number one recommendation of a study group that spent 2023 looking into issues with the state’s approach to indigent defense.