Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: The sad state of public defense in the US, OLOPE shuts down

September 15, 2015 5:20 AM - Season 2, Episode 27

Michigan state representatives Todd Courser and Cindy Gamrat leave office, the first resigning, the second removed from her position, due to allegations they were having an affair together. Guatemala elects a new President following the resignation of Otto Pérez Molina. Queen Elizabeth becomes the longest-serving monarch in British history. And Now: Some More Descriptions Of The Queen's Ridiculous Hats. Main story: public defenders, their relatively short history (only since 1963), and the many ways our legal system stacks the deck against them. (YouTube 15m) Last Week Tonight produced a short piece reimagining cop shows' Miranda warnings in light of the challenges faced by public defenders. And Now: An Important Message From Our Lady Of Perpetual Exemption (OLOPE), an update on the state of the church, which is closing down, and all the things they sent, at least one of which is really NSFW. Last Week Tonight is off next week.

Michigan: The giant hand holding Detroit back frorm trying to fight Canada.
The UK: The only two letters that promise more iciness and bad food than ("DQ").

"In four states, you can be poor enough to get food stamps and still not be poor enough to get state funded representation." The states are Georgia, Maine, Missouri and Virginia. "In 43 states you can be billed for a public defender." The NPR series Guilty and Charged discussed this fact.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: DICK WOLF

posted by JHarris (8 comments total)

Oh, seed, I get it.

It's still gross.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:29 AM on September 15, 2015

I did wonder if someone would actually send them their "seed". If I'm not mistaken, the church bit was on the same episode as the homophobic baker that put a bit of him on every wedding cake he made.
posted by lmfsilva at 11:44 AM on September 15, 2015

LWT has got a pretty broad reach, considering I was skeptical up until near the end of the Miranda-warning video that it was actually a bit created for the show, but lo & behold: Jeremy Sisto et al.* got real for us.

*I don't watch cop shows, didn't really know who anyone else was, sorry!
posted by psoas at 12:11 PM on September 15, 2015

It was great to see Kima again and fitting since the Wire was an HBO show. I didn't know who any one else was though.
posted by juiceCake at 1:00 PM on September 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

From Reddit: New 1-800-THIS-IS-LEGAL message.
posted by Gary at 3:24 PM on September 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

I recognized Kevin Chapman from Person of Interest. Robert John Burke was on that show as well as playing a cop or soldier in a ton of other shows.

The list of guest stars from Wikipedia: Danny Pino, Regina King, Jeremy Sisto, Robert John Burke, Josh Lucas, Kevin Chapman, Dennis Quaid, Sonja Sohn, and Rachel Dratch.
posted by Gary at 3:26 PM on September 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

Such a great main story. The clip of Travis Williams, the lawyer who frames his wins on the wall and tattoos the names of the clients whose cases he lost on his back, is from Gideon's Army, which is a wonderful and heartbreaking documentary that also gets into the practical and emotional toll the job takes on even the most committed public defenders. If you have HBO access you should watch it. I'm so glad Oliver took this subject on - it's exactly the kind of difficult and important topic he's uniquely equipped to tackle.
posted by earth by april at 6:32 PM on September 15, 2015 [2 favorites]

So glad the public defender crisis was covered by the show. It is a travesty, and I hope it gets all the media attention in the world.
posted by likeatoaster at 8:34 PM on September 15, 2015 [2 favorites]