| "Washington's automatic budget-cutting is hurting the courts and imperiling the federal public defender program and undermining the sound functioning of the courts -- particularly imperiling the delivery of effective legal representation to poor people accused of federal crimes....The cuts for federal defenders may actually end up costing taxpayers more. Because indigent defendants still have a right to counsel, new cases that would ordinarily be handled by a federal defender will inevitably be taken up by court-appointed private lawyers. That will lead to worse results at a higher cost, according to academic studies....That things have reached this point is a deep embarrassment for a nation grounded on the rule of law. Yet it appears that the situation is about to get much worse. Federal defender offices have been told to prepare for another round of cuts ." |
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