The status of the Missouri Public Defender System can be described accurately and succinctly in only six words: "Up the creek without a paddle." Before getting to the study that is the basis for this description, it's important to point out that problems with the Public Defender System affect all of us -- not just those thousands of people who are accused of a crime in Missouri and who don't have money for a private attorney.
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This is the U. S. Constitution and the Missouri Constitution we are talking about. This affects the lives of the accused, their families, crime victims, and all of us who believe that if we are to have a rule of law, there is no justification for ignoring a constitutional guarantee that is being breached.
The Sixth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution guarantees people accused of crimes the right to counsel. Originally, the Amendment was interpreted as applying only to the federal courts. It wasn't until 1963, when the U. S. Supreme Court decided the case of Gideon vs. Wainwright that the right to counsel was extended to state courts as well.
We've known in Missouri for a long time that the Public Defender System was in serious trouble. Too few lawyers are handling too many cases. The overloaded system means that attorneys barely have time to meet their clients, much less mount a rigorous defense. Defendants get to see an attorney, but they might not get effective counsel. It's not that the attorneys aren't capable and committed -- they're just overburdened, snowed under by an ever-growing caseload.
Our ailing economy is exacerbating the problem. Public Defenders' salaries come from the state. The state is in the midst of a budget crisis. Many, many more Public Defenders are needed if we are to fulfill our constitutional promise. If the money for more help isn't allocated, a lawsuit is sure to be filed on behalf of defendants who will sue on the grounds that they were denied effective counsel. Missouri is now at the bottom of the Public Defender barrel -- the state with the lowest per capita spending on its Public Defender System, except Mississippi.
The Spangenberg Group, nationally recognized experts on the justice system, recently published their study of Missouri's Public Defender System.
They conclude: "Our findings lead to the inescapable conclusion that MSPD is confronting an overwhelming caseload crisis, one of the worst of its kind in the nation -- a crisis so serious that it has pushed the entire criminal justice system in Missouri to the brink of collapse. The severity of the crisis has been forecasted for years, by those closest to it, but next to nothing has been done. And now the situation is as urgent as it is dire."
Here is the entire Spangenberg Report
