David v. State of Missouri

In 2020, over 4,600 individuals were waiting for eligible and on a waiting list for a public defense attorney in the State of Missouri. Roughly 600 of those individuals were incarcerated in pretrial detention at the time. 

These individuals were charged with crimes and determined to qualify for a court-appointed attorney but were being forced to wait for an indeterminate amount of time for one to become available due to an overburdened indigent defense system. As a result, someone charged with a crime had to wait weeks, months, or even years before their constitutional right to counsel was fulfilled. 

Alongside the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Missouri, and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, the Roderick & Solange MacArthur Justice Center filed a class action lawsuit on Feb. 27, 2020, to end the state of Missouri’s unconstitutional use of public defender “waiting lists,” which deprive thousands every year of the court-appointed counsel required by the constitution. 

In February 2021, a Missouri judge suggested that holding those charged with crimes on waiting lists to be represented by an attorney indeed violates both state and federal Constitutions, but deferred judgment in hopes the Missouri legislature might fix the problem. Two years later, the Circuit Court issued a judgement that served as a clear denouncement of the use of waiting lists for indigent public defense. It’s also a clear message to the Missouri legislature that it should work to finally fix the state’s over-worked and under-resourced public defender system by adequately funding it into the future and changing the law to prohibit the unconstitutional use of indigent defense waiting lists.