Public defenders' pay called 'pathetic'

By Douglas A. Copeland

Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney H. Morley Swingle says in his recent op-ed column that he finds it unbelievable that public defenders would have to take second jobs to make ends meet and to help pay off their student loans.

Recently, the Office of State Public Defender asked its attorneys throughout the state to complete an anonymous survey about outside employment. Thirty-eight public defenders replied that they had taken second jobs, work that ranged from refereeing, tutoring, teaching and proofreading to bowling alley attendant, bartending, baby-sitting, waitressing, delivering pizzas, working as a salesperson in a retail store, answering-service operator, doing laundry in a nursing home and even giving plasma twice a week for the $50 fee it provides.

This isn't a Chicken Little urban legend as suggested by Mr. Swingle. This is reality.

Last year, the Spangenberg Group, a nationally renowned research organization, thoroughly evaluated the status of Missouri's public defender system. It reported that some staff attorneys hold second jobs to support themselves and their families.

The Spangenberg Group concluded its evaluation by stating, "We believe that there is an extremely high risk that public defender attorneys can no longer assure that their indigent clients will be provided adequate and meaningful representation at this time. In our view, the crisis is no longer looming; it exists right now."

The report went on to say, "The salaries for public defenders in Missouri are pathetic. ... The cumulative turnover rate for the program over the past five years reaches approximately 100 percent."

The fiscal year 2007 budget recently passed by the Missouri House included $1.95 million to be added to the public defender system next year to improve the salaries of public defenders. Little or no additional appropriations have been made for Missouri's public defender system in the past five or six years, while caseloads have increased considerably.

The Spangenberg report had these comparisons between Missouri and other states: No other statewide indigent defense program has failed to receive any additional appropriations in the last five fiscal years, and Missouri has the lowest per-capita expenditure of all statewide public defender systems.

The modest increase in the House budget bill -- less than 7 percent of the system's budget -- after years of no additional appropriations is hardly "opening the floodgates" as suggested by Mr. Swingle. It is money that is desperately needed and can help restore a system that is on the verge of failing to live up to what our Constitution guarantees for indigent criminal defendants.

Douglas A. Copeland of Clayton, Mo., is the president of the Missouri Bar.