tax payers money

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   Lecieposted 14 years ago

   i just read a local article that said: more than $1 million a year of tax payers money goes to public defenders. so we are paying for the criminals to have their day in court. this is unbelievable. all this time i thought the public defenders were doing it as a community service. they are actually robbing the citizens of money that's badly needed for road work and other things. our roads are the worst they've been in 5 years. i'll bet the defenders are richer than they've been in 5 years. please give me some feed back on this.

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      IzzyMposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Lawyers. Just more dirty scheming Bs. I can't stand them.
      That asides, it's only right that every accused person should have fair representation at trial, don't you think? or can only the rich who have the money to pay for a defense lawyer get representation? Not all accused are guilty.

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      Ralph Deedsposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      That's a very uninformed and selfish comment. Some of the public defenders are quite good others are incompetent political hacks.
      
      Old Spanish saying--"The law is a rabid dog that bites only the poor."

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      Poppa Bluesposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      The entire justice department is a self perpetuating, self interested, self absorbed growing bureaucracy whose only interest is to keep itself employed and continue growing. Working hand in hand with lawmakers they conspire to separate the hard earned living of innocent people to enrich themselves!
      
      We could do with a lot less of the kind of justice that's metered out on a regular basis if we focused on putting real criminals away longer.

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         Ralph Deedsposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         My understanding is that public defenders are a state, not a Justice Department, function.

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      IntimatEvolutionposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Why is this so unbelievable?  Are you not aware of the bill of rights?

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   Rochelle Frankposted 14 years ago

   Public defenders usually use the position to hone their skills and gain experience, before they move on to better paying  positions.
   Yes, everyone deserves to be represented.

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   MikeNVposted 14 years ago

   So many things wrong with your post and your understanding of the law.
   
   $1 million?  Seriously it's 100's of millions if not more nationwide.  A million wouldn't cover the costs of 20 PD's.
   
   When you are charged with a crime it does NOT mean you are guilty!!!
   
   It's Innocent until proven guilty.  Wake up call. Everyone charged with a Crime is NOT guilty.
   
   Criminal Defense Attorney's charge as much as $500 an hour and more. How do you propose that the poor pay for their defense?  Should the innocent not have a right to legal defense?
   
   So you are suggesting that everyone arrested... many of which are actually innocent should not have a criminal defense?
   
   There are a lot of "Bad Guys" and they deserve to be removed from society... but they also deserve their time in front of the Judge so that the appropriate sentence can be administered.  And without Public Defenders that wouldn't happen.
   
   The biggest waste of Money is not Criminal Defense it's arresting people for consensual crimes like Marijuana Possession for personal use.
   
   The real money is not in the PD's it's in the $2,000 a month it costs to keep a person incarcerated.  It would be cheaper to just give them money!
   
   The system is very messed up.  It's about money and contracts and not the people.
   
   These problems all start at the top.  Corrections is a Gigantic Industry and Billions of dollars are being spent.

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      Doug Hughesposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Well said,  Mike.  The presumption of innocence is a cornerstone of our democracy.
      
      The fact is that many public defenders juggle over 100 cases at a time, resulting in poor preparation and the frequent recommendation that an innocent person plea bargain guilty to a lesser charge, rather tthan take a chance on an overburdened attorny who won't provide a real defense.
      
      Liz Chenney has taken this issue further and created a gap within the GOP by going after attorneys who represented Guantanimo detainees accusing by implication that they are disloyal to the US because they did their job as attorneys providing the 'best defense' , a very real and important precept in law where the lawyer  does not judge his client, (the  jury does) but provides the best ethical defense he can.

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         Madame Xposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         She's right. They're traitors. These guys should be tried in military tribunals, not civilian courts.

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