Missouri Public Defenders are Overloaded with Hundreds of Cases While Defendants Wait in Jail

TEAM

Nadia Shabazz
Lucas Dutronc

The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution guarantees every American facing trial the right to a lawyer, even if they cannot afford one. But across the country, the public defender system is being stretched to the breaking point, and Missouri may be ground zero. John Yang reports with producer Frank Carlson, in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. (Summary from John Yang and Frank Carlson, PBS Newshour)