American EnglishAmESCLBO a lawyer who is paid by the government to defend people in court, because they cannot pay for a lawyer themselves 公设辩护律师〔由政府出钱为付不起律师费的人辩护的律师〕 → district attorney
Examples from the Corpus
public defender• The two-month studyinvolved about 35 public defender cases in which Fuhrman was the investigatingofficer.• During my third year I spent a lot of time as a public defender.• James is entitled to a public defender.• The judgeappointed a federalpublic 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.