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232 Results
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New Jersey abolishes public defender reimbursement fees in felony cases
Pleading the Sixth: A recent change in state law means that indigent felony defendants in New Jersey will no longer have to pay public defender reimbursement fees; and any outstanding public defender reimbursement fees, liens, or warrants are forgiven. New Jersey is the ninth state in the country to abolish…
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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 public. If true, Kern County would be the fourth California…
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Low attorney pay in New York: a cautionary tale for the country
Assigned attorneys in most of New York State have not received a raise since 2004, when the legislature set the compensation rate at $60 to $75 per hour. The consequence? A “crisis” in assigned counsel programs, at least three pending lawsuits, and a threat to the Sixth Amendment. Assigned attorneys…
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The State of the Nation on Gideon’s 60th Anniversary
Pleading the Sixth: The fear of government unduly taking away one’s liberty led the United States Supreme Court to unanimously declare it an “obvious truth” that no indigent person can be assured a fair trial against the “machinery” of law enforcement without a lawyer. “The right of one charged with…
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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. Looking to Missouri’s recent court order in a class-action lawsuit…
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Broken Defense, a seven-part series exposes the depths of the indigent defense crisis in western states
Pleading the Sixth: Last week, Lee Enterprises published a seven-part series exposing the indigent defense crisis in the West. With data finally showing what the 6AC has known for years and has found in nearly every study – thousands of unrepresented defendants going to jail without ever speaking to a…
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Lake County Report is the third strike against California’s deficient indigent defense systems
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 on Lake County, coupled with a prior 6AC report on Santa Cruz County and the ACLU lawsuit in Fresno…
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Mississippi’s “dead zone” highlights the urgent need for state-level reforms
Pleading the Sixth: Mississippi regularly denies felony defendants the right to counsel during the critical stage between arrest or preliminary hearing and arraignment following grand jury indictment. This practice is pervasive, resulting from systemic neglect of indigent defense at the state level. Until Mississippi provides state-level oversight to guarantee that…
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New Mexico’s independent state commission is a “complete game changer”
Pleading the Sixth: The New Mexico chief public defender recently requested the state legislature for a 21% increase in funding. Ten years ago, the chief public defender was fired a week after telling lawmakers that the system was underfunded. 6AC examines how the creation of an independent oversight commission in…
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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 no reason. In order to preserve the independence of the…
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Michigan is ripe for another giant leap toward fulfilling its right to counsel obligations
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 supervision. The report concludes that the structural deficiencies identified within…
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Criminal justice issues that disproportionately harm poor people, such as wrongful convictions and over-incarceration, cannot be fixed if indigent defendants are given attorneys who do not have the time, resources, or qualifications, to be a constitutional check on government. Yet, investment in improving indigent defense services remains largely neglected. The Sixth Amendment Center is the only nonprofit organization in the country that exclusively examines, uncovers, and helps fix the root of the indigent defense crisis in which inequality is perpetuated because poor defendants do not get a fair fight.
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