Pleading the Sixth: On July 13, 2023, Governor Tina Kotek signed sweeping legislation into law that overhauls right to counsel services in Oregon. The new law adopts many of 6AC’s recommendations from its 2019 study: it abolishes flat fee contracting…
Pleading the Sixth: A 6AC report finds Oakland County, Michigan’s indigent defense system pits assigned counsels’ financial self-interests against the legal interests of their indigent clients while excess caseloads go unchecked under a county system that lacks adequate oversight and…
A new study shows there are two overarching reasons why the State of Illinois is defaulting on its constitutional right to counsel obligations. First, the state requires counties and courts to provide and predominantly fund indigent defense systems in a…
In a conversation ranging from national issues on right to counsel reforms, to Michigan’s continuing progress toward constitutional compliance, to the experiences of Wayne County (Detroit) establishing a new public defender system in response to a 6AC study finding significant…
In a decision that sounds a warning bell for public defense systems throughout the country, the Delaware Supreme Court has held that “[t]he Sixth Amendment requires more than the physical presence of counsel the first day of trial in a serious…
The 6AC was proud to help the folks at Last Week Tonight with John Oliver over the past couple of weeks as they developed an in-depth segment on the nationwide indigent defense crisis. Watch it here.
