Overworked And Underfunded, Mo. Public Defender Office Assigns Case — To The Governor
The public defenders office in Missouri says it's been overloaded for years: too many cases, too few attorneys, too little funding.
But Gov. Jay Nixon, who was previously the state's attorney general, has vetoed potential caseload caps and repeatedly blocked funding.
The director of the public defender system is frustrated — so frustrated he's implementing a state provision allowing him to draft any lawyer in Missouri to take over a case.
And he has one lawyer in mind: Jay Nixon.
Michael Barrett notified the governor in a letter Tuesday, opening with a walk down memory lane:
"Seven years ago, your office vetoed Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bill No. 37, which would have provided caseload relief to an overburdened public defender system. In denying that relief, you acknowledged that MSPD was operating 'under significant stresses' and committed to working with the General Assembly to fix the problem, but never did.
"Instead, you have repeatedly cut funding for an indigent defense system that continues to rank 49th in the U.S. [in terms of funding]."
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http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/04/488655916/overworked-and-underfunded-missouri-public-defender-assigns-a-case-to-the-govern
