Defendants on the lower end of the socio-economic scale find themselves at the mercy of public defenders who are swamped with cases, understaffed, and underfunded. Research shows that even before mass incarceration accelerated in the 1980s, overburdened systems of indigent defense struggled to meet the 6th Amendment constitutional mandate. Public defenders usually have the deck stacked against them due to discovery laws favoring prosecutors and lack of sufficient resources.
“The conclusion is inescapable: The U.S. Constitution guarantees every criminal defendant the right to an effective lawyer, and Missouri violates that right every day. Missouri’s public defender system is an underfunded disaster. Its 384 attorneys are too often overworked, under-trained, lacking needed investigative resources and unavailable for clients in and out of jail.“
Kansas City Star
November 20, 2019
Read More