Prosecutors are warning the Washington state Supreme Court that reducing public defender caseloads could lead to filing of fewer criminal charges and people seeking retribution on their own.
“This is a social contract. People give up vigilante justice in exchange for the government to administer justice,” Okanogan County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Teddy Chow told justices.
“Vigilantism will not only be limited to revenge or retribution to a particular offender but may also endanger those who work in public and criminal justice,” he said.
Chow wasn’t the only one making a dire prediction to justices in a hearing Wednesday on a request to amend the Supreme Court’s standards for indigent defense by trimming the number of cases public defense attorneys handle each year by up to two-thirds.
The state has a shortage of public defenders. Prosecutors say reducing defenders’ workloads will lead to filing of fewer cases to ensure no one’s rights to counsel are violated. And if the public defender ranks grow, cities and counties will need to amp up hiring of staff and prosecutors to keep pace and that will be exorbitantly expensive.