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 New Mexico Public Defender Commission gathered testimony Monday from local public defenders, national judicial experts and prosecutors as it considers how much work public defenders can shoulder before turning away indigent defendants who face jail time."
U.S. News & World Report
May 21, 2018
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