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Missouri Governor Fails to Fund Public Defender's Office so They Compel him to Work Cases

posted by janrinok on Friday August 05 2016, @06:28AM   Printer-friendly
from the revenge-is-sweet dept.

martyb writes:

Imagine you are responsible for providing legal representation for indigent people in your state (the public defender's office). Seven years ago, a request for additional funding to meet increased case load was vetoed. Your budget was cut in 2015 and now the governor's office is recommending further cuts. Making things worse is the fact that the number of cases has increased 12%. What would you do?

The Director of the Missouri Public Defender System came up with a novel approach to help meet the increased caseload burden and sent a letter to the Governor (PDF) compelling him to work cases.

Additional reporting here, here, and here.

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  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday August 05 2016, @03:54PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 05 2016, @03:54PM (#384504) Journal

    The way things work in reality, the prosecutor offers a plea bargain, the public defender says to take the plea bargain, and the judge does nothing. So in the interest of efficiency, you can eliminate public defenders and judges and courts, and have offenders report directly to the prosecutor to receive the plea bargain.

    Couldn't this system be automated using 21st century technology?

    Couldn't the police have a tablet with an app? You waive all your rights and go directly to jail? Seems like it could save a lot of money 'wasted' on constitutional ideas like justice. Ah, but the governor and legislators could probably never bring themselves to spend even a small amount to develop this app.

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  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 05 2016, @04:26PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 05 2016, @04:26PM (#384522)

    Couldn't the police have a tablet with an app? You waive all your rights and go directly to jail?

    They already have something similar called a gun and it can send you to the hospital or the morgue without the need for those pesky trials.