🌅 A Public Defender Shortage Is Leading to Criminal Dismissals

SOURCE

ABA Journal

WHAT TO KNOW

• Last month, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled the state had to dismiss more than 1,400 criminal cases due to a statewide lack of public defenders, underscoring a problem experts say has been years in the making and is now a constitutional crisis in the state. A 2022 report by the American Bar Association found Oregon has just 31% of the public defenders needed to handle its criminal caseload, as the state has long underfunded its public defense system.

WHY IT MATTERS

• Oregon is one of several states currently facing a shortage of public defenders, including Illinois, Maine, Utah, and Washington state, among many others (the problem is even worse in rural areas). Experts say defendants who can’t afford private counsel risk staying in jail longer, pleading without guidance, and being wrongfully convicted. It also delays prosecutors from clearing cases, slowing court dockets and ultimately increasing costs for taxpayers. In other words, the lack of public defenders harms the entire justice system, not just criminal defendants.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees individuals facing federal criminal charges the right to counsel, including at the government’s expense, if necessary. In 1963, the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Gideon v. Wainwright clarified the right and found it extended to state prosecutions, requiring states to provide an attorney to defendants who cannot afford one on their own. Research suggests more than 50% of all criminal defendants cannot afford a lawyer.