A salute to the contract public defenders

There are 2600 private attorneys in Massachusetts who accept court appointments to represent indigent clients. Meet one of them:

Sometimes court is like Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I'm the Black Knight in the scene where King Arthur and his companion, Patsy, are riding imaginary horses, clopping coconuts to imitate the sound of hoofs. They encounter the knight at a bridge, and he says, "None shall pass." A fight starts, and the Black Knight gets one arm chopped off, then the other. "Just a flesh wound," he insists. There is more fighting, and, one by one, his legs are cut off. Finally, there's nothing left but a stump of a knight. Arthur starts to cross the bridge, but the knight says, "Running away, eh? You yellow bastard. Come back here and take what's coming to you. I'll bite your legs off!"

That's an appointed criminal-defense attorney. That's what we do.

(In Minidoka County, Idaho, the p.d. contractor calls himself a "clean up batter" - different time zone, same pummelage.)

Update: Alaskablawg has an extended post inspired by the story about the Massachusetts private attorney here, saying, "The article is a fairly accurate reflection of the daily life of most public defenders/court-appointed attorneys." He's right; it is. Read it here.