Some Are Jailed in Mississippi for Months Without a Lawyer. A Court Just Barred That.

Some are jailed in Mississippi for months without a lawyer. The state Supreme Court just barred that.

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal and co-published with The Marshall Project. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published. Poor defendants in Mississippi are routinely jailed for months, and sometimes even years, without being appointed an attorney due to the state’s notoriously dysfunctional public defender system. …

Some Are Jailed in Mississippi for Months Without a Lawyer. A Court Just Barred That.

The state’s Supreme Court moved to end a “dead zone” in the dysfunctional public defender system.

Some Are Jailed in Mississippi for Months Without a Lawyer. The State Supreme Court Just Barred That.

Criminal justice reformers have long complained that the state’s rules on appointing public defenders leave poor defendants without a lawyer as they wait to be indicted.

Some are jailed in Mississippi for months without a lawyer. The state Supreme Court just barred that.

by Caleb Bedillion and Taylor Vance, Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Mississippi TodayApril 14, 2023This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal and co-published with The Marshall Project. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.Poor defendants in Mississippi are routinely jailed for months, and sometimes even years, w…