Pleading the Sixth: On August 7, 2023, the American Bar Association (ABA) passed a revision of the ABA Ten Principles of a Public Defense Delivery System, giving policymakers a new roadmap for providing public defense. The Ten Principles is revised…
Author: Aditi Goel
Revised ABA Ten Principles: A new public defense roadmap for policymakers
Tagged with: Ten Principles
Strike Four, now what? ACLU sues Kern County, California for systemically denying counsel
In a lawsuit filed against Kern County last week, the ACLU alleges constitutional violations at the arraignment where probation officers offer plea deals to unrepresented defendants and encourage them to waive counsel in a process that is closed to the…
Timely access to counsel declared a national priority
Pleading the Sixth: On March 2, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice launched a national tour to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright. A focus of the tour’s first stop was timely access to counsel for indigent defendants.…
Lake County Report is the third strike against California’s deficient indigent defense systems
This evaluation was supported by 6AC’s Law Student Network. Are indigent defense services best funded and coordinated by the government at the state level or local level? California has avoided answering this question for decades. Yet, a new 6AC report…
Tagged with: California, contracts - flat fee, county systems, evaluations of systems, Ten Principles
Judges’ removal of Champaign County public defender sets off alarms in Illinois
Pleading the Sixth: Illinois statutes authorize circuit judges to control the public defense function. In every one of Illinois’ 102 counties, except Cook (Chicago), circuit judges hire the public defender and can fire the public defender for any reason or…
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