Nixon says public defender maneuver not legal

The Missouri public defender's office says it's been overloaded for years – too many cases, not enough funding. Earlier this week, it assigned a case to a new public defender – Gov. Jay Nixon.

In a move that made national headlines, the defender's office sent a letter to the two-term governor saying, in part, “Seven years ago, your office vetoed Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 37, which would have provided caseload relief to an overburdened public defender system. In denying that relief, you acknowledged that MSPD was operating 'under significant stresses' and committed to working with the General Assembly to fix the problem, but never did.”

In a statement yesterday, Nixon said the move isn’t legal.

“It is well established that the public defender does not have the legal authority to appoint private counsel,” Nixon spokesman Scott Holste told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The St. Louis newspaper reports Nixon signaled he will fight the unprecedented move to make him a public defender.

Read more from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.