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Hard times making it hard to run our criminal justice system

By Douglas A. Berman

From ABC News comes this interesting article, headlined "Facing 'Crisis,' Public Defenders May Refuse Cases ? Constitutional Dilemma: 'Severe' Budget Cuts Could Force Public Defenders to Turn Away Thousands of Poor Defendants."  Here is how the piece starts:Faced with what they call severe budget shortfalls, several public defender offices across the country say they may soon begin turning away thousands of poor criminal defendants. Statewide public defenders in Kentucky and Minnesota and local offices in cities such as Atlanta and Miami say budget cuts are forcing them to fire or furlough trial lawyers, leaving the offices unable to handle misdemeanor and, in some instances, serious felony cases. The cuts leave states scrambling to find a solution to a constitutional dilemma: The Sixth Amendment requires the government to either provide poor defendants with lawyers or release them...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on June 14, 2008 (boomark / email).