When the Courts Are Indifferent and Legislators Apathetic: Partnering with Prosecutors to Protect Public Defense

Abstract

The last decade offered advocates fleeting hope that the courts would step in to reform public
defense. However, recent decisions by state courts – and the intransigence of the federal
judiciary – have proven those prospects a mirage. In this essay, a courts’ researcher and advocate
condemns federal and state jurists for their open and continuing refusal to address a
constitutional crisis occurring daily in their own courthouses. Legislatures are proving powerless
to fix the problem, too. If change is possible, it will come from the most unlikely partners in an
adversarial legal system – prosecutors. Far from a wild notion, this initiative is already underway
in several jurisdictions. Reform makes for strange bedfellows.

Keywords: Public defense, prosecutors, courts

JEL Classification: K14, Z18