PIERRE, (KCCR) — Officials are rapidly assembling the members of South Dakota’s new Indigent Legal Services Commission. The Commission will be the governing board for an eventual statewide public defender office. The Commission and office are the result of passage of House Bill 1057. The Commission will have nine members, selected by Governor Kristi Noem, Supreme Court Chief Justice Steven Jensen and others. The Governor and Chief Justice will select three members. The other three are selected by the Executive Director of the state County Commissioners Association, Speaker of the South Dakota House and President Pro Tem of the Senate. Senator Lee Schoenbeck and Representative David Kull have been appointed to serve. Noem selected former Attorney General and judge Larry Long, State Bar President Heather Bogard and Sioux Falls Attorney Dick Travis. Jensen has selected University of South Dakota Law School Dean Neil Fulton, Minnehaha County Public Defender Betsy Doyle and Sixth Circuit Judge Bobbi Rank. Rank will serve a two-year term.
