Ohio Code 2949.19 – State payment of criminal costs for indigent felons
(A) Subject to division (B) of this section, the clerk of the court of common pleas shall report to the state public defender all cases in which an indigent person was convicted of a felony, all cases in which reimbursement is required by section 2949.20 of the Revised Code, and all cost bills for transportation that are prepared pursuant to section 2949.17 of the Revised Code. The reports shall be filed for each fiscal quarter within thirty days after the end of the quarter on a form prescribed by the state public defender and shall be accompanied by a certification of a judge of the court that in all cases listed in the report the defendant was determined to be indigent and convicted of a felony or that the case is reported pursuant to section 2949.20 of the Revised Code and that for each transportation cost bill submitted pursuant to section 2949.17 of the Revised Code that the convicted felon was determined to be indigent. The state public defender shall review the reports received under this division and prepare a transportation cost voucher and a quarterly subsidy voucher for each county for the amounts the state public defender finds to be correct. To compute the quarterly subsidy, the state public defender first shall subtract the total of all transportation cost vouchers that the state public defender approves for payment for the quarter from one-fourth of the state public defender’s total appropriation for criminal costs subsidy for the fiscal year of which the quarter is part. The state public defender then shall compute a base subsidy amount per case by dividing the remainder by the total number of cases from all counties the state public defender approves for subsidy for the quarter. The quarterly subsidy voucher for each county shall then be the product of the base subsidy amount times the number of cases submitted by the county and approved for subsidy for the quarter. Payment shall be made to the clerk.
Terms Used In Ohio Code 2949.19
- Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
- Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
- Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
- Person: includes an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, and association. See Ohio Code 1.59
- Public defender: Represent defendants who can't afford an attorney in criminal matters.
- Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
- state: means the state of Ohio. See Ohio Code 1.59
The clerk shall keep a record of all cases submitted for the subsidy in which the defendant was bound over to the court of common pleas from the municipal court. Upon receipt of the quarterly subsidy, the clerk shall pay to the clerk of the municipal court, for municipal court costs in such cases, an amount that does not exceed fifteen dollars per case, shall pay foreign sheriffs for their services, and shall deposit the remainder of the subsidy to the credit of the general fund of the county. The clerk of the court of common pleas then shall stamp the clerk’s records subsidy costs satisfied.
(B) If notified by the state public defender under section 2949.201 of the Revised Code that, for a specified state fiscal year, the general assembly has not appropriated funding for reimbursement payments pursuant to division (A) of this section, the clerk of the court of common pleas is exempt for that state fiscal year from the duties imposed upon the clerk by division (A) of this section and by sections 2949.17 and 2949.20 of the Revised Code. Upon providing the notice described in this division, the state public defender is exempt for that state fiscal year from the duties imposed upon the state public defender by division (A) of this section.