Public defenders rarely a priority

You don't become a public defender to get rich. Most do it for one of three reasons: it's a calling, it's an opportunity to start a career or it's the only job a young lawyer can find.

They get scant support for the work they do. Most of us agree intellectually with the premise that everyone charged with a crime deserves adequate legal representation and that people are presumed innocent. But there's little political gain to pay for it. On an emotional level, any defense attorney can recite conversations that start with, "How could you represent that scumbag?"

But, if you believe in the things that America represents, it's wrong to short-staff, underpay and overwork public defenders. Such is the case in Kentucky, where recent reports describe numbing caseloads -- about 500 per year per public defender in Boone County, for example. In Fayette County, caseloads average 651. The Legislature added funding to hire more public defenders in 2006, but the problem persists.

One idea that might help is to offer student loan forgiveness for lawyers who enter public service law. The Courier-Journal recently wrote about Ted Shouse, a state public defender with about $100,000 in student loans. Kentucky public defenders and legal aid lawyers start at about $34,000 to $38,000 annually. Obviously this is not much of an attraction for the sharpest minds graduating from our law schools with an interest in criminal law.

Reality isn't the same as "CSI." Mistakes and even wrong, bullheaded prosecutions do happen. Innocent people do get arrested and imprisoned for crimes they didn't commit. Guilty people do get harsher sentences than those who have the financial means to hire the best lawyers money can buy. We need good public defenders with the time to do their jobs correctly.