Very Truly Yours

As Director of the Public Defender System, I can only hire attorneys when I have the funding to do so. ...  To avoid having to close one or more offices, the remaining option is to consider the use of Section 600.042.5, which gives the Director of the Public Defender System the authority to "[d]elegate the legal representation of any person to any member of the state bar of Missouri." ....

[P]ursuant to Section 600.0425 and as Director of the Missouri State Public Defender System tasked with carrying out the State's obligation to ensure that poor people who face incarceration are afforded competent counsel in their defense, I hereby appoint you, Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, Bar No. 29603, to enter your appearance as counsel of record in the attached case.

Very truly yours,

-- Michael Barrett, Director of the Missouri Public Defender System, in a letter assigning a case to Governor Jay Nixon, 2 August 2016