Last night on Last Week Tonight, John Oliver once again peered into the abyss of the American criminal justice system, homing in on the plight of low-income defendants and the overworked public defenders assigned to represent them. During the course of a very funny and very enraging segment, Oliver looked at the many indigent arrestees who can't afford bail and agree to a plea bargain despite their innocence, simply to get out of jail.
"Our public defender system is dangerously under-resourced," Oliver notes. "One report found that 40% of all county-based public defenders have no investigators on staff. That's 40% of lawyers forced to sit at their desks Googling 'where to get exonerating evidence' and hitting 'I'm feeling lucky.'"
Ever the absurdist, Oliver somehow makes time to rank the Muppets "in order of fuckability" and lambaste a Kickstarter for a giant inflatable Lionel Richie head. He also shares truly incredible courtroom security camera footage showing a Florida judge ("of course it was Florida") challenging a public defender to a fistfight. It's all so ludicrous and appalling that the rewritten Miranda warning video that caps the segment seems like something America actually needs.
