“How many of the 30 defendants present for a single ‘mass plea’ hearing in Louisiana’s 16th judicial district in June would have pleaded not guilty if they’d had more than 20 seconds of legal counsel?” The Guardian and The Marshall Project teamed up to report on the way “years of drastic budget cuts have created bottomless caseloads for public defenders — the ‘pack mules of the system’ — and tipped the scales of justice against the poor.”