"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the rightto have the assistance of counsel for his defense." - U.S. Constitution, Amendment VI, Dec. 15, 1791
In Missouri, the scales of justice are tipped against the poor.
Missouri's woefully underfunded public defender system doesn't give the accused a fighting chance in court.
This is not a new revelation. For years, it has endured a crushing workload that assigns, on average, more than 216 cases to each of its 370 attorneys. Michael Barrett, who leads the state's public defender system, said his agency needs twice the number of attorneys to handle its 80,000-plus cases.
Barrett says Missouri ranks No. 49 out of the 50 states in per capita spending for indigent defendants.
"I've done everything short of setting myself on fire to draw attention to the situation that the state has put us in - that poor persons in this state, including poor children, are being pushed through the criminal justice system, fined excessively, and deprived of their liberty, without receiving the benefit of an attorney who has the necessary time to look into their case," Barrett said.
He has, indeed, taken extreme measures to draw attention to the system's plight. Last year, when then-Gov. Jay Nixon withheld funding for the agency, Barrett assigned a case to Nixon. The ploy didn't work legally, but it did serve to draw attention to the issue.
The agency is again in the news this week after the American Civil Liberties Union and a St. Louis law firm filed a lawsuit claiming the state has failed to fund the system adequately.
Regardless of the outcome of the litigation, the state should stop ignoring the problem. Continuing to do nothing invites more litigation. That could include suits from convicts appealing because their state defenders were too busy with each of their other 215 cases to pay them much attention.
Increasing spending on lawyers to defend indigent Missourians accused of crimes isn't a popular stance to take. In this case, however, it's the right thing.
Ensuring every Missourian has adequate legal representation in criminal court isn't merely fair or moral, it's required in the U.S. Constitution.