P-D:
Jay Nixon vetoes public defender bill
JEFFERSON CITY — Legislation setting maximum caseloads for public defenders wouldn’t solve the overburdened system’s problems, Gov. Jay Nixon said today.
Nixon vetoed the bill (SB37), along with more than a dozen others. The actions wrapped up his decisions on legislation passed this year by the Missouri General Assembly.
The public defender bill, sponsored by Sen. Jack Goodman, R-Mt. Vernon, would have allowed the state to contract with private attorneys to handle cases that exceeded a new maximum. If money ran short, a waiting list would have been established for indigent defendants needing a lawyer.
Nixon said the bill would have given the Public Defender Commission “too much unfettered discretion” to set caseload limits and would have shifted responsibility for managing the public defender docket to trial courts. He promised to work to find more money for the system instead.
I can’t say that the opinion I’m about to give is fully informed and credible, but at first glance, I think Nixon did the right thing. If we start allowing long waiting lists to get PDs, especially in black-heavy jurisdictions like St. Louis City and Jackson County, then judges will start dismissing the criminal charges against them summarily because of the lack of a speedy trial and of a lack of a defense attorney.
The wheels of justice might turn slowly, but better that than their stopping.
