Missouri Bar President Skip Walther finalized a task force this week that will ponder solutions to ongoing resource problems for all parts of the criminal justice system. Two past bar presidents, several prosecutors and public defenders and one former lawmaker ...

Tagged with: Cat Kelly Dwight Scroggins J.R. Hobbs Missouri Bar public defenders Skip Walther

The Missouri Supreme Court struck down rules the Missouri Public Defender Commission enacted in 2008 that allow public defenders to refuse certain types of cases.
But, as public defenders read the decision, opinion author Judge Michael A. Wolff shoved open the door to a new option. Public defender offices can't refuse some cases and take others, but particularly burdened offices might be able to refuse to take any new cases.

Tagged with: caseload Cat Kelly Dwight Scroggins Michael A. Wolff Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys Missouri Public Defender Commission Missouri Supreme Court

At the urging of a new Missouri Bar governor, the Missouri State Public Defender System may try to recoup some of the $70,000 the system raised to pay for a comprehensive study of its caseload problems. The governor, Marie Kenyon, ...

Tagged with: Cat Kelly Dwight Scroggins Missouri Bar Board of Governors prosecutor public defenders Skip Walther Spangenberg Group

A group of Missouri prosecutors urged bar officials to conduct a review of the state’s entire criminal justice system – one that doesn’t focus just on public defenders. In a press release sent Thursday, Buchanan County Prosecutor Dwight Scroggins said ...

Tagged with: Dwight Scroggins Keith Birkes prosecutors Skip Walther Spangenberg Group The Missouri Bar