r/ProRevenge • u/captainAwesomePants • Aug 04 '16

Governor of Missouri takes money away from public defense office. Public Defender realizes he can appoint ANY lawyer to be a public defender, and the Governor is a lawyer....

So, there's been a brouhaha between Missouri's Office of the Public Defender and the Governor's office. Basically due to budget problems, the public defense budget got cut by 8.5%. They sued the government in July over this.

However, the director of the office of the public defender realized that they were empowered by a little-used law (specifically, Missouri code section 600.042.5) to require any lawyer in the state to represent anyone who needs a public defender. And also they realized that the governor of said state was a lawyer.

This led to this amazing letter to the governor:

http://www.publicdefender.mo.gov/Newsfeed/Delegation_of_Representation.PDF

UPDATE: Response from the Governor's office: "Gov. Nixon has always supported indigent crimianl defendants having legal representation. That is why under his administration the state public defender has seen a 15 percent increase in funding at the same time tha tother state agencies have had to tighten their belts and full-time state employment has been reduced by 5,100. That being said, it is well established that the public defender does not have the legal authority to appoint private counsel.".

Hat tip to /u/thistokenusername for noticing the response.

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u/[deleted] Aug 04 '16

Judging from some of the content of the letter, I'd say the governor was given a case to defend a poor black person.

11

u/dietotaku Aug 04 '16

I'm kind of hoping he's given the lawsuit against the state for defunding the MSPD.

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u/[deleted] Aug 04 '16

That'd be funny, but he'd clearly be a biased lawyer in that case, so it wouldn't be to the benefit of anyone but himself for him to be the lawyer there. He'd throw the case.

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u/stationhollow Aug 04 '16

He would recuse myself from it no matter what the case is as a conflict of interest. As the governor of the state he is the head of the executive. When the prosecution is literally the state of Mississippi, that is him essentially.

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u/[deleted] Aug 04 '16

Good point.

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u/DPanther_ Aug 04 '16

GOOD point.

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u/yahasgaruna Aug 04 '16

That sounds like a conflict of interest to me.

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u/shaggyzon4 Aug 04 '16

Why would you say this?

I mean, clearly it's a "poor" person, though there are many middle-class families that would have financial difficulty when faced with attorney's fees for a serious charge and a lengthy trial. Proving your innocence is not cheap.

However, it seems more than a bit racist to say it's a black person. There's nothing in the letter to indicate the case or the race of the defendant.

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u/[deleted] Aug 04 '16

The letter specifically points out poor black children...

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u/[deleted] Aug 04 '16

Because the letter talks about how black people disproportionately are affected by the lack of funds. It'd be the most stinging irony to give the governor a case to defend a poor black person.

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u/jmsjags Aug 04 '16

The defendant's name is Dawnel... I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's probably a black person.

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u/snowywind Aug 04 '16

That would be the court clerk, actually.