MISSOURI STATE PUBLIC DEFENDER SYSTEM
Director’s Office
Woodrail Centre
1000 West Nifong, Building 7, Suite 100
Columbia, Missouri  65203
Telephone: 573-526-5212   Fax: 573-777-9975

Official Statement – For Immediate Release

June 8, 2020 (COLUMBIA, MO)  The Missouri State Public Defender system stands with our greater defender communities and bar associations throughout the United States as the public defense community marches today in St. Louis and Kansas City for Black lives lost and against the deeply rooted inequities in the criminal legal system.  Systemic racism and police brutality have never had a place in any part of our society, including our criminal legal system.  And yet here we are again.  This cannot continue.  We watched in horror the killing of George Floyd, but the presence of a video should not be what changes us.

We condemn state sanctioned violence against the Black community and all communities of color. We believe, and always have believed, that Black Lives Matter.  We have and will work tirelessly to have our client’s voices heard, valued, respected and believed in Missouri Courts. We commit to do more. We commit to listen to people of color and believe their experiences. We commit to teach and learn about how racism impacts our community, our courts, and our profession and to take action against it.

Mr. Floyd’s death proves that we have much work to do as a nation, as a public defender agency, and individually to right the wrongs of 400 years of oppression of Black people in this country.  In this moment, we again hear you, stand with you, and join you and the rest of our country in this fight for equality and justice.

For questions regarding this information, please contact:

Mary Fox, Director
Missouri Public Defender System
Phone: 573-508–7722
Email: Mary.Fox@mspd.mo.gov

Public Defender Commission – Press Release
MARY FOX TO BE NEXT STATE PUBLIC DEFENDER
January 9, 2020

The Missouri Public Defender Commission has selected Mary Fox of St. Louis, Missouri, to serve as the next director of the Missouri State Public Defender System. Fox will take office on January 10, 2020, succeeding Michael Barrett, who resigned effective November 15, 2019, to relocate to New York.

Fox has served as the District Defender for the St. Louis City Trial Office since 2007. Fox was an Assistant Public Defender in the Clayton and St. Louis City Trial offices from 1981 until 1987.

In the intervening twenty years Fox served as the Traffic Commissioner for St. Louis County and practiced family and juvenile law. Fox is a 1976 graduate of St. Louis University with a Bachelor’s degree in Urban Affairs and a 1980 graduate of St. Louis University School of Law.
Fox is a lifelong resident of University City where she and her husband Bob raised their four children, Rob, Tom, Kathleen, and Patrick.

For questions regarding this information, please contact:
Mary Fox
Director
573-526-5212
Mary.Fox@mspd.mo.gov