Kudos to Robert Gehrke for his spot-on column, “System is failing poor people accused of crime.” He correctly points out the inequities in the Utah legal system’s criminal defense of the poor.
The quality of public defender programs in Utah varies widely from county to county because they frequently are so underfunded. If you doubt that, compare the budgets of county attorney's offices with those of the public defender.
Caseloads for attorneys representing the poor far exceed those from the prosecutor's office and it is highly unusual for a public defenders office to have sufficient funds to hire an investigator.