System Sequestration News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Daughter, the former south african president's health is improving. she says he's more alert and can now sit up for minutes at a time. the 95-year-old has been in the hospital for two months now. let's turn to a deepening crisis in the courts, where the sequester is now decimating the federal public defender's program, making it even harder for a poor defendant to get a fair trial. msnbc's ari melber explains. >> reporter: it's been called shared sacrifice. >> the sequester was meant to be something so bad that no one would allow it to happen and i think part of what we're learning is that w...

Courtroom. "huffing post" justice reporter calls the public defender system sequestration's biggest victim. >> it creates an unequal system, federal public defenders going on furloughed days and going up against federal prosecutors. >> the western district of texas in february the public defender's office faced a 9% pay cut. in march the office was notified it had to cut an additional 14%. the result? case delays, layoffs for a third of the defenders and a 10% salary reduction on top. meanwhile, the number of cases isn't letting up. it's projected to top 13,000 this year. >> and you see sort o...