Rebuffed time and again by the Missouri legislature and Gov. Jay Nixon, who refused to substantially increase the budget for indigent criminal defense, the chief public defender, Michael Barrett, had enough. He recently took an unusual and desperate step. He appointed Nixon, a licensed Missouri attorney, to represent an indigent client accused in an assault case. We applaud this bold action. It’s a dramatic and symbolic way to call attention to the inexcusable lack of funding for indigent criminal defense representation in that state.
Missouri is ranked 49th in the country in terms of a public criminal defense system. Thousands of low-income people accused of committing crimes are not receiving their constitutionally required right to representation. Public defenders there are handling upward of 125 to 200 cases at a time. Where ABA criminal defense function guidelines suggest spending 12 hours per misdemeanor case, in Missouri the average time spent by counsel is 2 hours.
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