all 5 Knox County General Sessions Court Judges will sit together in the old Knox County Courthouse and hear from Public Defender Mark Stephens on his request to not be appointed to further misdemeanor cases. I respect all 5 General Sessions Judges. However, I hope that will take into consideration that money has continually been thrown at the Public Defender’s office. With a $2.7 million dollar office space, a bloated office staff along with operational expenses.

This staff could handle 50 misdemeanor cases to a couple of felony murder cases that generate all the media hype. So, remove them from the BIG cases. Better yet let’s spend 6-8 months studying if this NEW system is working and going back to court appointed lawyers. What’s the rush? Study the results, then determine the best course of action.

Here is the previous post of Brian’s Blog on this subject. For the record, I like and support Public Defender Mark Stephens, I love his extended family. On this issue, he and I may have to agree to disagree.