Supplementing rural justice systems to level the playing field

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune published this editorial a year ago, but I just came across it and found it worthy of note.  The headline is "Rural counties need AG expertise."  It's about the bind that nonmetro counties are in when it comes to handling big prosecutions because they typically have fewer resources.  Here are some excerpts that focus on the challenges specifically identified as rural: 

After four years of requests, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison finally will get a badly needed and ongoing legislative infusion of funds to bolster the criminal prosecution division of his office. The expertise and staffing power he will add are crucial, especially to outstate county attorneys who already have too few resources when confronted with complex or high-profile cases.

The piece quotes Ellison, who had just received more than $4 million in funding to hire seven new attorneys plus support staff: 

There are incredibly complex human trafficking cases in rural counties that cross all kinds of jurisdictional lines, same with financial exploitation and other cases. We have had to rebuild the criminal division from the ground up, but with this funding, I can say, 'We're back.'

The editorial continues:

The benefits that can yield were clear earlier this month, when the Attorney General's Office came in at the request of Cook County and obtained a conviction in the gruesome murder of Ricky Balsimo. After Balsimo was killed in St. Paul, his body was dismembered in Superior, Wis., then transported to Grand Portage, Minn., where Robert T. West obtained a boat to dump the remains into Lake Superior.

Cook County has a population of 5,600, is on the Canadian border, and is the state's easternmost reaching county.  

Cook County Attorney Molly Hicken told an editorial writer that her office had not had to take a murder case to trial in 22 years, let alone one of such sweeping complexity. "My office has two attorneys," Hicken said, "including me."

Hicken said a murder trial "takes immense resources. This specific one had 2,500 pages of discovery, days' worth of recordings. It would have been total nightmare." Ellison's office, she said, was able to supply a prosecutor with 22 years of experience in homicide cases. "He knows the issues that can come up," Hicken said. "He works with the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. He has relationships with forensic scientists. We simply don't have that expertise and resources."

Hicken said she is far from alone in this predicament. Of the state's 87 counties, she said, "24 have two or fewer attorneys in their county office. Fourteen more have just three." County attorneys also have many responsibilities beyond court cases, she said, including providing counsel to local officials, reviewing contracts, negotiating cases and even writing ordinances.

"We need access to equal justice in rural Minnesota," Hicken said. "That includes access to justice for crime victims. Victims here deserve the same type of skilled prosecution for their cases that they would get in Hennepin County."

This seems like a sensible way for a state to support its rural counties, whether the issue is prosecution or indigent defense.