Public defenders have, arguably, one of the worst jobs in the country.
Their job is to take the cases of defendants who cannot afford to have an attorney; part of the “You have a right to an attorney, if you can’t afford an attorney one will be assigned to you,” part of the Miranda speech that police give to those who have been recently arrested.
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There is currently one particular set of public defenders that have the absolute worst job, however, and they are the ones assigned to George Zimmerman, the man who was acquitted of the shooting of Trayvon Martin.
While he cannot be retried for the Trayvon Martin case, despite the judgement of the court of public opinion, he hasn’t exactly done himself any favors after an incident at the home of his girlfriend, Samantha Scheibe. Zimmerman was arrested Monday and charged with aggravated assault, domestic violence battery and criminal mischief. He was released on Tuesday with a $9,000 bond, and a prohibition on holding any firearms.
Given the nature of the crimes he has been charged with, and because of the national attention that the Trayvon Martin case attracted, we expect that when the case begins in January, Zimmerman may once again be in the center of a national firestorm.
For that reason, the people that have been assigned to his defense, and needless to say, Scheibe, have our sympathy. It’s going to be a really rough year for them.
