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Senate funds pilot to place public defenders in rural counties; critics say process lacked full review
Summary
The Senate approved one-time funding for a public defender pilot program intended to bring defenders to rural parts of the state, drawing sustained questions about program design, scope and whether the House-approved added language was negotiated with the Senate.
The Mississippi Senate approved funding for a pilot that the state public defender’s office says will place public defenders and an investigator into rural counties, but several senators said the program was added in the budget process without a standalone bill or full committee debate.
Senator Wiggins, explaining the measure folded into the public-defender budget, said the plan puts a pilot office in the Fifth Circuit and would fund two attorneys…
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