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…
Tag: Ten Principles
Revised ABA Ten Principles: A new public defense roadmap for policymakers
Tagged with: Ten Principles
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
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…
Tagged with: evaluations of systems, funding, Michigan, oversight, Pleading the Sixth, standards - system, Ten Principles
The State of Illinois defaults on its constitutional right to counsel obligation
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…
New ACLU lawsuit: Washington State fails to ensure effective delinquency representation
Pleading the Sixth: In a new lawsuit, the ACLU of Washington alleges that the right to counsel system for juveniles facing delinquency proceedings in Grays Harbor is so constitutionally deficient that the State of Washington must take action.
Missouri Governor shows why indigent defense crisis will not be fixed without defender independence
Pleading the Sixth: When the Missouri Public Defender, Michael Barrett, appointed the Governor to represent an accused indigent defendant, it brought national attention to the state’s longstanding underfunding of right to counsel services. Now, after a local judge ruled Barrett…
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