So, how about this phrasing instead:
On the basis of a single, jailhouse interview with one of dozens of clients, a public defender must decide which ones have
- Essentially zero chance of successful defense (regardless of Counsel’s belief regarding the client’s innocence), which makes the public defender essentially a broker of plea bargains.
- A nonzero chance of successful defense, which makes the public defender essentially the triage manager of who gets the insanely limited resources for defense and who gets “encouraged” to plead out, even if their defense has some merit.
None of this should be construed as an attack on the courageous, dedicated, selfless public defenders who are the only shred of hope for tens of thousands of defendants who are in the process of being ground to bits by the wheels of “Justice”
