We again implore the Missouri Legislature to make it a priority during the next legislative session to address the case overload problems within the state's Public Defender Office.
We've said before that Missouri's scales of justice are tipped against the poor because of our state's underfunded public defender system. It's been this way for years. Now, on average, more than 216 cases are assigned to each public defender.
On Tuesday, Cole County Presiding Judge Pat Joyce ruled the Cole County Public Defenders Office is at a point where something needs to be done to make sure clients are given adequate representation.
Her finding came in response to a motion filed by lead public defender Justin Carver, asking the judge to appoint an outside attorney in the case of Quntien Williams, a Jefferson City man charged with one count of second-degree domestic assault in July.
Carver's area covers Cole, Miller and Moniteau counties. Attorneys within the district are "overburdened with cases," he testified.
Joyce set a hearing next week for Carver and Prosecuting Attorney Mark Richardson to work on a solution. One solution is to hire a private attorney from outside the public defender system.
Tuesday's hearing comes in the wake of a Missouri Supreme Court decision earlier this year to punish a public defender. The court decided to put Karl Hinkebein's law license on probation for a year due to his lack of communication with several clients over several years.
In Boone County, Presiding Judge Kevin Crane ordered private attorneys to take cases the public defender would otherwise handle. Public defenders there requested judges stop appointing them to cases due to fears of disbarment.
Until something is done, these problems are only going to increase. More attorneys will file motions requesting outside counsel for public defender cases. If judges don't honor those requests, they will face an increasing risk that prosecutions in those cases could be overturned.
Michael Barrett, who leads the state's public defender system, has said his agency needs twice the number of attorneys to handle its 80,000-plus cases. Barrett has said Missouri ranks No. 49 out of the 50 states in per capita spending for indigent defendants.
When the Missouri Legislature reconvenes in January, it needs to fulfill its constitutional requirement that criminal defendants are entitled to adequate legal representation.
News Tribune