I wrote an article for the CBT earlier this year detailing state legislation pertinent to the legal community. While many bills fell by the wayside, one that made it through the process legislation allowing the Public Defender Commission to formulate a cap on public defenders’ caseloads.
The bill’s sponsor – Sen. Jack Goodman, R-Mt. Vernon – pitched the idea as a way to prevent public defenders from running afoul of ethical obligations preventing attorneys from taking on too many cases. Officials in the public defender system viewed the measure as a way of easing a mounting caseload, especially when state resources have been essentially flat for years.
While the bill made it through the legislative process without substantial opposition, Gov. Jay Nixon chose to veto the bill last week. He argued in a veto letter that Goodman’s bill would create problems for other elements of the criminal justice system.
One of the interesting subplots of this issue is how prosecutors and judges banded together to get Nixon to veto Goodman’s bill. Officials from Boone County joined in on the effort.
Circuit Judge Gene Hamilton said in a brief letter to Nixon that the enactment of Goodman’s bill “will be a disaster for criminal justice in Missouri.” Circuit Judge Gary Oxenhandler and Associate Circuit Judge Judge Leslie Schneider wrote in a letter that they were fearful Goodman’s bill “is going to increase local jail populations.”
“As local prisoners stand in the que waiting for counsel to become available, jail populations will back log and jails’ populations will, in turn, increase,” said the judges in a letter to Nixon. “In a time when money is tight and crime appears on the increase, local communities cannot take the additional financial hit.”
Boone County prosecutor Daniel Knight also strongly urged Nixon to veto the legislation. Knight’s letter said that “the label of ‘public defender crisis’ is much overstated especially in comparison to workloads of prosecutors across the state.”
“Here in Boone County, I do not believe the workloads of the local public defenders are overly burdensome, especially when compared to the workloads of attorneys in my office,” Knight wrote.
“If there is a problem it is system-wide and not unique to public defenders,” Knight added. “I believe more time is needed to study the issue, and any problems in the criminal justice system need to be addressed comprehensively.”
While public defender officials say they are disappointed with the veto, they noted that they were satisified that Nixon acknowledged that the system has problems. It’s also possible the caseload cap could still be implimented either through a court order or if the legislature overturns Nixon’s veto.
But as Buchanan County prosecutor and Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys president Dwight Scroggins noted, legislators who voted for the bill the first time might go in another direction after getting an earful from local officials within the justice system.
Tags: dan knight, gary oxenhandler, gene hamilton, jay nixon, legal system, leslie schneider, public defendersCategories: City Politics, Politics, State Politics.
[...] I noted in last week’s blog post, Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed legislation that would allow the state’s Public Defender Commission to [...]