From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpublic defenderˌpublic deˈfender noun [countable] American EnglishSCLBO a lawyer who is paid by the government to defend people in court, because they cannot pay for a lawyer themselves → district attorney
Examples from the Corpus
public defender• The two-month study involved about 35 public defender cases in which Fuhrman was the investigating officer.• During my third year I spent a lot of time as a public defender.• James is entitled to a public defender.• The judge appointed a federal public defender to represent him.• He and his public defender, Barry Collins, have acknowledged that Davis committed the crime.• He cried so much that he barely could talk to his public defender, Dale Nielson.• He was accused of a felony; she was the public defender.• The public defender, who must have been desperate, put her client on the stand. 