Public defenders

Public defenders

Part 1

Public defenders are lawyers who are appointed to represent those people who cannot afford to hire a lawyer. Their role came about after an amendment of the sixth Bill of Rights in the united states constitution. The change was ruled out in 1963, and it stated that the government should provide free defendants during criminal cases. It was after this constitutional amendment that many countries started providing legal counselors during case hearing in court. They all work at the expense of the State in the office of the public defender’s office. They are appointed by the court and assigned the case they are going to work on. They engage in a lot of trials, and this sometimes affects their working in the court of law. According to research taken, one public defendant may handle one thousand cases a year, which is equivalent to three instances a day. Still, according to the StateStateState, they should handle only 150 cases. This shows they are much pressured and sometimes underpaid by the government since the work they engage in is hard and tiresome.

John in Last weekend night TV show he presents a topic on Public defenders and points out several weaknesses’ in the office of Public defender. He says that in a study taken in New Orleans, public defenders who work part-time are limited to spend seven minutes in one case. It may be shocking to understand how a civil defendant can prepare a case in only seven minutes. According to the law, any case for it to qualify to be heard in the court of law, it must have all the evidence, and well-prepared failure to it is suspended. When someone says this process can be done in only seven minutes, the statement looks sarcastic on its own.

John represented these issues in the public defender’s office in a way that everyone can understand the real situation from a layman’s perspective. He describes how the cases are handled by the public defenders in the court briefly. He says the seven minutes it is not enough to prepare a complete case under normal circumstances and that there are things that are left out leading to violation of rights of the suspect. In most cases, many suspects end up pleading guilty of offenses without even going to trial. Several victims have been affected by this issue where they end up in jail due to irresponsible behaviors of the state lawyers that could be avoided.

On the other hand, some issues are exaggerated concerning the office of Public defender. John states that 90-95% of all criminal cases end up in guilty pleas; this makes the office look like they are not keen on their work and are only concerned with sentencing people rather than following the law to bring justice. The StateStateState has employed a lot of lawyers to help in solving cases that are delivered in court daily. The addition of more lawyers has contributed to minimizing the cases that were earlier on being suspended due to a lack of legal personnel. People should make a point at this keenly before listening to what others are criticizing about the office. Also, about the issue of some counties not having the public defender services, it is not accurate since there is no evidence provided to prove so. Every county has a public defender office that has the right number of lawyers to represent the public. This critic makes the Criminal Justice System of America seem to be unfaithful and unreliable in legal issues.

Part 2

Old mindset, according to Hans Rosling, is the idea that is taught in institutions about the Western world and the Developing World. The concept is widely spread through education, and it is evident that the two worlds have a lot that differs in them. When Hans is having a coffee break with the students, they refer to themselves as “We” since they are in amongst the Western world countries. “Them” is used to refer to developing countries that are still growing in all areas of their economy. Most of the developing countries are the ones that were colonized by the Western countries and are characterized by high levels of poverty and an unstable economy.  The Western world countries are characterized by democracy, developed economy, from top to a very high standard of living, presence of the Latin alphabet, and Judeo-Christian tradition. Countries that are in Western countries are the United States of America, Germany, Russia, France, the United Kingdom, among others. Third world countries or developing countries include some African countries and some Asian countries.

The idea that there are “Them” and “We,” as illustrated by the students, was reliable only when their teachers were born, Hans explains. He further explains this by saying that even during conferences, they don’t consider and relate that certain third world countries such as Mexico are growing in their economy. Mexico has shown improvement in its economic growth, but it is not viewed by other countries who want to show their superiority. Also, there are countries like the U.S that have encountered a fall in their economy.

The idea up to now has changed since many countries in recent years, has changed from a great perspective, and it is evident in their economy; hence the emphasis of “we” and “them” that used to be should be done away with. In his visualization software presents data to show how several countries have been thriving since their independence, and they are not recognized. People should not only classify countries with their economy alone but also having a look at their life expectancy, mortality rate, and income distribution.

There are several perspectives I learned from the data visualization by Hans Rosling. With also considering that there are countries in the past 200 years that have improved in their income and life expectancy in generalization, there was nothing to expect from them. Countries like Australia was increasing its income levels with no change in its health status, but later in some years, it has improved by 30% in its life expectancy. On centrally, Bangladesh in the twentieth century has a 22% increase in its life expectancy with no income increase but now has changed. All these are well visualized by the use of Gapminder in only four minutes. Hans Rosling is a Swedish academic, statistician, and physician who wanted to change the world but knew what first he could do is to change people’s perspective of the world. He understood that he had a misunderstanding of the world, which came about because of ignorance. He made it possible to change people’s understanding by educating them through forums. He starts from the world’s history based on wealth, life expectancy, and population. This forum has brought up researchers and Academicians together to have proof of it. He insists that today’s world is stuck because of the focus on the past, and for it to take a step ahead, it has to change the initial suppositions by understanding the data he presented.

From Han’s work world businesses can learn the following: people are only preconceived by ideas but not ignorant as said, They should invest in the appropriate priorities, business needs to be healthy for people to be wealthy and that work done should be enjoyable to those who are participating in it. Companies should also focus on investing in their capability for them to get a good road map. Funding to be considered are things like infrastructures and programs.