
Missouri State Public Defender: Letter to Governor [pdf] - sea6ear
http://www.publicdefender.mo.gov/Newsfeed/Delegation_of_Representation.PDF
======
aftbit
Some interesting discussion is happening over on MetaFilter[1]. The uninformed
opinion is that this is a great publicity stunt, but probably won't stand as
the Governor is technically the head of prosecution and would therefore have a
conflict of interest with every case.

1: [http://www.metafilter.com/161399/Missouri-governor-
appointed...](http://www.metafilter.com/161399/Missouri-governor-appointed-as-
a-public-defender-to-an-indigent)

~~~
maxerickson
It's interesting that so many people over there think this will be terrible
for his career.

His background is also interesting:

[http://www.mobar.org/esq/mar27/michael-
barrett.htm](http://www.mobar.org/esq/mar27/michael-barrett.htm)

His wife is the Executive Director of the Missouri Bar and he used to be a
deputy lawyer in the governor's office.

This could easily be a first step towards running for an elected position.

~~~
throwaway729
It's entirely political. Else he'd have also sent letters to members of the
bar in MO's general Assembly which is equally if not more to blame for the
current situation. (And is, IME, a ridiculous embarrassment to the state...)

~~~
xenadu02
Actually the MO Assembly tossed them $4.5 million in additional funds,
specifically to hire more ad litems in child abuse cases (the attorneys
appointed by the court to represent the child directly).

For some reason the governor's office has withheld $3.5 million of those funds
(apparently that's a power the MO governor has?).

~~~
hga
It is, and I think it's rather common for states, and he's usually used it
responsibly to keep the state's finances semi-sane. Don't know about this
example, though.

The US president used to be able to do this, Thomas Jefferson was the first in
1801 per Wikipedia
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impoundment_of_appropriated_fu...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impoundment_of_appropriated_funds)),
and it _continued to help keep the US Federal budget a bit sane_ until in 1974
when the Nixon excuse was used, as it was for so much else, to completely
change the way we did budgeting (and much else, like campaign financing, the
primary system, etc.).

As someone who's been there for the before and after, this was not an
improvement, something that's going to be brought forcefully to everyone's
attention when e.g. we are no longer viewed as the least worst place to stash
your wealth.

------
themartorana
It's a publicity stunt but it's brilliant. Public defender realities are
grotesque, and people that can't afford a private attorney get hosed by
default.

John Oliver covered this crisis recently:
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=USkEzLuzmZ4](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=USkEzLuzmZ4)

~~~
douche
I think _Better Call Saul_ hit on how busted the public defender system is
quite a bit in the first season.

~~~
notdonspaulding
Interesting though they may be, John Oliver and Better Call Saul are not
documentaries. I hope nobody is seriously informing their political opinion
based off shows from Netflix and HBO.

~~~
pitt1980
I hope people aren't seriously basing their political opinions off
documentaries

but I'm sure people do base their opinions off whatever appeals to their logic
and emotions, in whatever medium it comes in

------
Apocryphon
Privilege escalation in our own judicial system? Well hacked.

------
jMyles
Why the change in title? The previous one was better for showing how this is
an interesting, novel event without being (IMO) too terribly click-baity.

~~~
Kinnard
What was the previous title?

~~~
jMyles
I don't see a way to view the old title, so I'm not 100% sure, but it was
something like, "Missouri governor cuts public defender funding, is appointed
public defender."

~~~
Kinnard
Personally I find some of the "curation" on HN heavy handed

~~~
jimktrains2
What's worse is that in this case there is no title to the document. The one
the mod changed it to is just as made up as the original one. In a way, one
could view this title as an anti-clickbait title to keep people away from the
topic, which is a very political move.

~~~
Kinnard
I'm sad about it . . . But I agree.

In any case, it looks like the title has been changed again.

------
generj
Well, that's one way to draw attention to the issue. Well played Michael
Barrett. Well played.

------
323454
What a twist ending! I wonder if he intentionally made it so that the juicy
bit was on the second page just to increase the antici

pation

~~~
ourmandave
<shiver>

------
NolF
I had a quick look at the budget [0] and it would seem the public defender
office has a larger budget [2016 $40m] than prosecution [2016 $35m]. Wouldn't
a fair defence system have a similar budget to the prosecution? It would seem
that they use about 157 FTEs more in the defence than prosecution.

Granted I don't exactly know how these departments are layout but I thought
that without a prosecutor you don't need a defence. So a 1:1 ratio would seem
about fair, and being overwhelmed would be a case of inefficiencies in one
department compared to another.

[0]
[https://oa.mo.gov/sites/default/files/FY_2016_Executive_Budg...](https://oa.mo.gov/sites/default/files/FY_2016_Executive_Budget_Download.pdf)

~~~
SmellTheGlove
Defense takes more resources than prosecution. The prosecution has the
relative luxury of the police force doing its investigatory work - hard
evidence, witness identification, etc. The defense gets discovery of a lot of
that, but also has to do its own investigatory legwork regarding the facts,
alibis, exculpatory evidence that wasn't turned over (or not investigated at
all), friendly witnesses, etc. To make a 1:1 ratio work, you need to include
the police resources used in the prosecution and allocate investigative
resources to the public defenders office accordingly.

PDs tend to be good lawyers, but you're boned if you need one. Again, it's not
the legal skills, it's that they lack the resources to actually dig into your
case, and the sorts of people who usually need a PD are also of a
socioeconomic status that doesn't have the education or resources to do the
legwork.

~~~
Fjolsvith
Not to mention that the defendant usually cannot do the legwork from inside a
cell.

~~~
SmellTheGlove
And the guy that needs the PD probably isn't making bail, either.

------
exabrial
I feel bad for the poor person that is at the receiving end of this lawsuit.
Don't forget somewhere, there is an actual human being that is facing very
real consequences.

Giving all the racial issues Missouri has been facing... The lack of pd
funding is terrible.

------
williamscales
Gutsy. At the least it will look bad for Nixon if he withdraws from the case.

------
mi100hael
At this point I'm not surprised any time I see bad press about Jay Nixon.
Thank god he's term limited.

------
robalfonso
I'd think the smell test for whether he can serve is no different than if a
state governor can serve jury duty. The requirements for impartiality are
similar.

It looks like governors have served on jury duty as well

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2015/06/10/even...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2015/06/10/even-
governors-have-jury-duty/)

------
Overtonwindow
HRm. Well that's interesting but good luck. As Governor I would think he'd
have a conflict of interest.

~~~
jessaustin
I think that's up to the discretion of the trial judge? In many cases you'd
expect trial judges to defer to the governor's wishes because corruption.
However, the judges around here are always complaining that the courts don't
get enough money, so they might have sympathy for the PD. Also, one would
expect some of them are at least slightly in favor of justice, so it has to
stick in their craw a bit when they see all the poor folks getting the five-
minute-plea-bargain treatment.

------
upofadown
People are more than happy to have lot of laws and cheerfully fund the
required law enforcement but when it comes to the requirement for public
defenders to make the rest of the system work they just don't care for some
reason.

------
mkehrt
Does anyone know if this section of Missouri law has ever been challenged
under the Thirteenth Amendment's prohibition against involuntary servitude? It
naively seems unlikely to me to survive. Or are there other precedents for
forcing people to fill government roles?

~~~
williamscales
Jury duty?

~~~
vacri
Conscription.

Edit: Weird that this is being voted down. Conscription is involuntary service
_by definition_ , and has been used by the US government within living memory.

~~~
DannyBee
No idea why you are being voted down. This is 100% on point, and in fact,
AFAIK, the main source of non-slavery legal precedent on the 13th amendment.

------
dzdt
Chutzpah! I love it just for that if nothing else.

