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Public Defender Office Assigns Case — To The Governor
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/04/488655916/overworked-and-underfunded-missouri-public-defender-assigns-a-case-to-the-govern
"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]."
For several years in a row, the Legislature has approved multimillion-dollar budget increases for the public defender system, which the Democratic governor has rejected. The additional money would have helped hire more lawyers; a 2014 study found that Missouri needed an additional 270 public defenders in order to adequately represent the state's poorest defendants.
It's gotten even worse since then, Barrett told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He says he has fewer lawyers because he can't afford to replace those who leave for the private sector, and the system's total caseload has gone up 12 percent in the last year. Each of his lawyers, he says, has to handle more than 100 cases at a time — in some cases, more than 200.
"I can only hire attorneys when I have the funding to do so," Barrett wrote in his letter to the governor. But he does have another option — the ability to delegate duties to "any member of the state bar of Missouri."
Barrett says he hasn't used that power because "it is my sincere belief that it is wrong" to force private lawyers, who aren't responsible for his budget crisis, to pick up the obligation of the state.
"However, given the extraordinary circumstances that compel me to entertain any and all avenues for relief, it strikes me that I should begin with the one attorney in the state who not only created this problem, but is in a unique position to address it," he writes.
And with that, he appointed Nixon to a case......"
"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]."
For several years in a row, the Legislature has approved multimillion-dollar budget increases for the public defender system, which the Democratic governor has rejected. The additional money would have helped hire more lawyers; a 2014 study found that Missouri needed an additional 270 public defenders in order to adequately represent the state's poorest defendants.
It's gotten even worse since then, Barrett told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He says he has fewer lawyers because he can't afford to replace those who leave for the private sector, and the system's total caseload has gone up 12 percent in the last year. Each of his lawyers, he says, has to handle more than 100 cases at a time — in some cases, more than 200.
"I can only hire attorneys when I have the funding to do so," Barrett wrote in his letter to the governor. But he does have another option — the ability to delegate duties to "any member of the state bar of Missouri."
Barrett says he hasn't used that power because "it is my sincere belief that it is wrong" to force private lawyers, who aren't responsible for his budget crisis, to pick up the obligation of the state.
"However, given the extraordinary circumstances that compel me to entertain any and all avenues for relief, it strikes me that I should begin with the one attorney in the state who not only created this problem, but is in a unique position to address it," he writes.
And with that, he appointed Nixon to a case......"
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