Expert Services
We provide technical assistance that is tailored to the unique needs and requests in each jurisdiction. This ranges from staffing government task forces, to holding confidential one-on-one meetings, to testifying before legislatures when asked. We also educate the public through speaking engagements, our Pleading the Sixth blog, and sharing what we know about the right to counsel so you can help fix the issue.
Government Technical Assistance
Speaking Engagements
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December 14, 2018
Oregon Legislature, Joint Committee on the Judiciary Salem, Oregon
Deputy Director Jon Mosher presents the final findings and recommendations, for response and comment, from 6AC’s evaluation of public defense services provided by the Public Defense Services Commission and the Office of Public Defense Services in Oregon’s state trial courts.
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December 13, 2018
Oregon Advisory Committee and Public Defense Services Commission Salem, Oregon
Executive Director David Carroll and Deputy Director Jon Mosher present the final findings and recommendations, for response and comment, from 6AC’s evaluation of public defense services provided by the Public Defense Services Commission and the Office of Public Defense Services in Oregon’s state trial courts.
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November 28, 2018
Texas Panhandle criminal justice stakeholders’ meeting Amarillo, Texas
Executive Director David Carroll and Deputy Director Jon Mosher explain the history of the right to counsel in America, the 6AC’s philosophy for ensuring the Sixth Amendment right to counsel, and 6AC’s method of evaluating indigent defense systems.
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September 27, 2018
Oregon Advisory Committee Salem, Oregon
Executive Director David Carroll and Deputy Director Jon Mosher present preliminary findings from 6AC’s evaluation of public defense services provided by the Public Defense Services Commission and the Office of Public Defense Services in Oregon’s state trial courts.
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September 18, 2018
Indiana Task Force on Public Defense Indianapolis, Indiana
Executive Director David Carroll provides technical assistance expertise to the Task Force in its final meeting as it advances its agenda for the 2019 legislative session, including seeking reimbursement of counties for misdemeanor representation, a statewide appellate defender, and increased staffing for the Indiana Public Defender Commission.
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August 17, 2018
Nevada Right to Counsel Commission Carson City, Nevada
Executive Director presents 6AC’s final findings and recommendations resulting from the 6AC’s assessment of adult indigent defense services in rural Nevada. 6AC’s report “The Right to Counsel in Rural Nevada – Evaluation of Indigent Defense Services” explains for the first time how indigent defense services are provided in every trial level court in the state outside of Clark County (Las Vegas) and Washoe County (Reno), collectively referred to in Nevada as the “rural counties.”
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July 10, 2020
Illinois Council of Chief Defenders By videoconference
Deputy Director Jon Mosher presents to a membership association of appointed county public defenders from across the state of Illinois, at which he provided an overview of our statewide evaluation of right to counsel services in Illinois. The presentation highlighted the Council’s primary concerns of excessive caseload, budget, and independence issues.
February 7, 2020
National Conference of State Legislatures Fort Myers, Florida
Executive Director David Carroll presents “Liberty v. Tyranny: The State of America’s Constitutional Right to Counsel” at NCSL’s Advancing Justice 2020 conference. He is joined on the panel with: J.J. Gentry, South Carolina Ethics Lawyer; Senator Gerald Malloy, South Carolina; and, Julie Wassen, author, Right on Crime.
November 8, 2019
Alaska Bar Association Anchorage, Alaska
Executive Director David Carroll and Deputy Director Jon Mosher present “Watching the Watchmen: Independence, the Indigent, and the Public Defender Agency at Fifty,” discussing the history of the right to counsel and the state’s Fourteenth Amendment obligation to provide the Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel.
June 12, 2019
Texas Panhandle criminal justice stakeholders’ meeting Amarillo, Texas
Deputy Director Jon Mosher and Executive Director David Carroll present preliminary findings from 6AC’s evaluation of trial level indigent defense services in Armstrong and Potter counties.
March 19, 2019
Boston University School of Law Boston, Massachusetts
Executive Director David Carroll discusses the ways in which deficiencies in indigent defense systems contribute to wrongful convictions. Special emphasis is placed on undue political and judicial interference with the independence of the defense function and on the use of United States v. Cronic to get at how systemic deficiencies prevent even the best lawyers from providing constitutionally effective right to counsel services.
December 7, 2018
Fair and Just Prosecution, Annual Convening Houston, Texas
Executive Director David Carroll, along with co-panelist Lisa Foster who is the Director of the Fines and Fees Justice Center, discusses deficiencies in indigent defense systems and what prosecutors can do to improve the right to counsel, focusing on the actual denial of counsel that occurs when prosecutors enter into plea negotiations with unrepresented defendants.
Support Our Work
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.
The Sixth Amendment Center is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization under EIN: 45-3477185.
Donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowable under the law.
