They&#x27;re not saying he&#x27;s presumed guilty, they&#x27;re just trying out various scenarios to illustrate the effects of the laws.<p>And if you go that route, then it&#x27;s not at all fair that some people can hire expensive lawyers and others cannot to improve their chances.  If someone defrauds Medicare for millions, why should they get an expensive lawyer for that when other people cannot afford them?<p>If everyone was forced to use public defenders, the powerful would use their influence to make sure that it provided effective, independent defense.  Even so, it&#x27;s not like getting an expensive lawyer somehow gets you off and a public defender guarantees you&#x27;ll be found guilty.<p>But it does not seem reasonable that we should adopt rules to increase the unfairness by doing everything possible to remove any incentive to improve the public defender&#x27;s office and doing our utmost to ensure that the poor are forever trapped with ineffective counsel.<p>Just for the record, this guy has a very expensive lawyer, not a public defender.