A recent study by the Center for Justice, Law and Society at George Mason University ranked Missouri as 49^th out of the 50 states in per capita spending for indigent legal defense.  It could be worse.

Law-and-order types should take note of this.  They’re flirting with a potentially disastrous event sitting just over the budget horizon: at some point there will be a lawsuit claiming that defendants are not receiving adequate representation.  Then comes a wave of convictions being turned over.  That would be worse.