Opinion ID: 1766494
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: History of the Office of State Public Defender

Text: When a defendant is found to be indigent in Missouri, the defendant's Sixth Amendment right to counsel is usually met by the judge appointing the Office of State Public Defender. [6] The public defender's office, however, currently is facing significant case overload problems. Its lawyers and its staff are overworked. Following the Gideon decision in 1963, [7] Missouri's indigent defendants were represented by unpaid court-appointed attorneys. State v. Green, 470 S.W.2d 571, 572 (Mo. banc 1971). But in 1971, this Court held that it would no longer compel the attorneys of Missouri to discharge alone `a duty which constitutionally is the burden of the State.' Id. at 573 (citing State v. Rush, 46 N.J. 399, 217 A.2d 441, 446 (1966)). The Missouri legislature in 1972 enacted legislation establishing a public defender commission and creating a blended system of local public defender offices and appointed counsel programs. [8] By 1981, however, the funding appropriated by the legislature was running out before the end of each fiscal year. In State ex rel. Wolff v. Ruddy, the Court was asked to compel the state to pay attorneys for their work. 617 S.W.2d 64, 64 (Mo. banc 1981). At that time, this Court said that it did not have the power to do so but that it did have the power to turn to The Missouri Bar and compel lawyers to represent indigent defendants. Id. at 65-66. As a result, the Court directed that the members of the legal profession represent indigent defendants until the legislature chose to fix the lack of funding. Id. at 67. [9] One year later, in 1982, the General Assembly created the Office of State Public Defender under the control of the public defender commission. Sections 600.011 et seq., RSMo Supp.1983, cited in State ex rel. Public Defender Comm'n v. Williamson, 971 S.W.2d 835, 838 (Mo.App.1998). The legislation authorized the director of the office to determine if an accused was indigent and, if so, to appoint private counsel to take the case for a set contract fee. Section 600.011 et seq., RSMo Supp.1983; Public Defender Timeline at 2. Finally, in 1989, in response to the rising cost of the contract counsel program and the increasing difficulty finding private practitioners willing to take on indigent cases for the fees paid by the State Public Defender System, the system was reorganized.... Public Defender Timeline at 2. The new system gave the director the authority to hire assistant public defenders, as well as contract with private attorneys, in order to provide defense services `by means of a centrally administered organization.' Williamson, 971 S.W.2d at 838 (quoting sections 600.011(7), 600.021 and 600.042.1(10), RSMo 1994). This is the system currently in use. See section 600.010 et seq. [10] During the last two decades, the number of persons sentenced for felonies in Missouri has nearly tripled. The public defender represents about 80 percent of those charged with crimes that carry the potential for incarceration. Since 1985, the number of offenders convicted of drug offenses (possession, distribution and trafficking) has increased by nearly 650 percent, while non-drug sentencing has increased by nearly 230 percent. [11] When the state established the public defender system in the early 1980s, one in 97 Missourians was under correctional control  either in jail or prison [12] or on probation or parole. In 2007, by contrast, one in 36 was under correctional control, and 32 percent of those were incarcerated in prison or jail. During the decade of the 1990s, the population of Missouri grew by 9.3 percent, while the prison population grew by 184 percent. [13] Recent data show more than 56,000 individuals on probation; nearly 20,000 on parole (supervision that follows a prison term); more than 10,000 in Missouri jails (many of whom are awaiting trial) and about 30,000 in state prisons. [14] The state's vast increases in criminal prosecutions have not included commensurately increasing resources for the public defender. Much of Missouri's law enforcement and prosecutorial budgets are from local sources, while the public defender system is funded by the state government. [15]