Lawmakers are considering several bills aimed at addressing the ongoing public defense crisis in Oregon, which has left thousands of defendants without representation.
As of Friday, there were 5,594 unrepresented defendants across the state, an all-time high, according to the Oregon Judicial Department’s dashboard . In Marion County, there were about 642 unrepresented defendants in criminal cases. Polk County had none.
Lawmakers have been struggling to fix the system for years. A 2018 report found the state’s system was causing it to fail its constitutional obligation of providing counsel to indigent defendants. The report found the compensation plan for contracted lawyers pitted their financial self-interest against the rights of their clients…