Tag: California

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

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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

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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

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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

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2021 Year in Review

By Michael Tartaglia and Kourtney Kinchen 6AC presents this year in review to acknowledge the most significant reforms to how the right to counsel is funded and delivered across the United States. We wish all our readers a happy and

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California’s lack of oversight adds to Santa Cruz County’s indigent defense woes

Pleading the Sixth: For decades, Santa Cruz County has delegated to private law firms, through county contracts, all decision-making about the provision of Sixth Amendment right to counsel services. The county cannot accurately say how many people or cases, and of

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