Amid one of the nation’s worst public defense budget crises, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has been ordered by the state’s public-defender director to sign up as counsel of record for the state’s poorest. Unable to pay for sufficient public defenders, the state’s director of the public defender system called upon a little-used law that allows him to enlist lawyers as public defenders. The governor, being an attorney, was first on that list.

It’s an ironic twist for Nixon, a guy who has continuously slashed funds going towards public defense. It looks like he’ll have to work with whatever tools are left.

“Missouri’s public-defender system is in crisis,” to use to words the words of the Atlantic. According to the National Legal Aid and Defense Association, the state spends less than half of the national average, per-person, in public defense spending.

Missouri’s 270 public defenders, faced with mountains of work and low pay, can barely keep the system treading water, according to a 2015 piece from the St. Louis Dispatch.

An Open Letter to Jay Nixon

Michael Barrett, director of Missouri State’s Public Defender Office has been keeping a keen eye on all of Gov. Nixon’s activities and isn’t too pleased. So he happened upon an interesting solution. Relying on a rarely-invoked Missouri law, Barret called Nixon in for duty, as a public defender.

Crossing of Swords

We’re not sure what Nixon’s expression was like after he read this letter, but we’d love to get a picture.

Barrett and Nixon have crossed swords before and the former has accused the latter of trying to single handedly transform the state’s democracy into a form of monarchy.

We await a response from Nixon’s office.

Related Resources:

  • Missouri State Public Defender Shuts Down Gov. Jay Nixon in an Incredible Way (PolicyMic)
  • Oregon Occupier Says He’s an Idiot, Demands $100M to Stand Trial (FindLaw’s Greedy Associates)
  • Peeping Tom Lawyer Faces Disbarment. Is the System Rigged? (FindLaw’s Greedy Associates)

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