John Oliver: If You're Relying on Your Public Defender 'You're F*cked'

AlterNet
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 AlterNet Staff
September 14, 2015

John Oliver took aim at the public defender system on last night's epidose of Last Week Tonight, citing the example of Fresno where defenders work on over 1,000 cases a year.

“With caseloads that heavy, public defenders cannot possibly prepare an effective defense,” said Oliver. “A study in New Orleans, a few years back, found the city had some part-time defenders who could only spend an average of seven minutes per case. And that is not long enough to prepare anything. If I only had seven minutes to prepare this show, I would definitely not be talking about public defenders right now. I’d be desperately trying to fill time right now by listing the Muppets in order of f*ckability.”

You can watch a video of the segment below.

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