More than 100 criminal cases in Boston, including with serious charges such as domestic violence, have been thrown out due to a monthslong shortage of public defenders on strike over low wages.
The dismissals, in addition to a mass release of inmates facing trial, precipitate from a compounding crisis of overworked and underpaid defense attorneys, which is not just consuming Massachusetts.
Last week, Judge Tracy-Lee Lyons, chief justice of Boston Municipal Court, dismissed 122 cases against indigent defendants due to the public defender strike in Massachusetts that is now entering its third month…