Expert Services

At the invitation of the House and Senate co-chairs, Executive Director David Carroll and Counsel Mike Tartaglia assist the committee in understanding constitutional requirements for providing legal representation to indigent people, including national standards addressing independence of the defense function, as the committee debates restructuring the Maine Commission of Indigent Legal Services.

Executive Director David Carroll discusses the findings and recommendations from the 6Ac’s forthcoming statewide evaluation of adult felony indigent defense services.

Executive Director David Carroll continues work with the Task Force members as they develop recommendations to improve the state’s oversight of Sixth Amendment right to counsel services.

For the inaugural meeting of the commission, 6AC Executive Director David Carroll explains Nevada’s unique right to counsel history, the known current deficiencies in providing indigent defense representation in rural counties, and a research plan to objectively document and evaluate indigent defense in rural Nevada.

Executive Director David Carroll works with sub-committee members as they debate potential statewide structures and models for the delivery of indigent defense. Topics include: the advantages and disadvantages of a statewide appellate defender; how some states regionalize the oversight of trial level indigent defense services; and methods states use to get counties to comply with statewide standards.

Maine’s task force continues to study how to achieve greater cost-certainty in providing state-funded indigent defense services. 6AC Executive Director David Carroll and Staff Counsel Mike Tartaglia provide technical assistance to the task force, explaining how other states balance the need to ensure effective representation and the desire for cost efficiency.

Executive Director David Carroll discusses the technical assistance and training available through the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance, in the panel presentation “Looking Back and Moving Forward: Stories and Action Steps from Federally Funded TTA Providers.” Joining him in the presentation are Priya Sarathy-Jones (BJA), Marea Beeman (NLADA’s Director of Research Initiatives), Jon Rapping (Founder/President of Gideon’s Promise), and Lisa Vavonese (Center for Court Innovation’s Deputy Director for Update Office and Peacemaking Coordinator).

Executive Director David Carroll interviews Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Jeffrey Bivins about the court’s support for legislation to improve the provision of counsel to indigent defendants in Tennessee, including by creating a statewide oversight commission and state appellate defender office, and by increasing the compensation paid to the private attorneys appointed to represent the poor. Speakers at this National Consortium include Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Executive Director David Carroll speaks about supervision and quality control in systems that use contracts to provide representation to indigent defendants, at the annual seminar sponsored by the Oregon Public Defense Services Commission and the Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Association. He also addresses a meeting of the statewide Public Defender Services Commission to explain the current state of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel in America.

Executive Director David Carroll joins Indiana Public Media Reporter Barbara Brosher, Indiana Public Defender Counsel Vice Chair David Shircliff, and Marion County Public Defender Agency Chief Counsel Ann Sutton to discuss Indiana’s failure to ensure effective representation for all people of limited means who face the potential loss of liberty in criminal or delinquency proceedings. The live radio discussion is part of Indiana Public Media’s in-depth investigation into the public defender system in Indiana, “Justice For All?” – a three-part series in print, radio, and television.

Executive Director David Carroll speaks at the annual conference of the National Criminal Justice Association, a membership organization of criminal and juvenile justice stakeholders and policymakers. Joining him in a panel presentation are Maha Jweid (Acting Director, Access to Justice), Genevieve Citrin (American University, Justice Program Office), and Jack Cutrone (NCJA). In their presentation “Securing Sixth Amendment Rights,” they discuss the technical assistance and training available through the U.S. Department of Justice and the partnerships it enables.

Wisconsin pays attorneys only $40 per hour to defend the indigent accused. This is the lowest compensation rate in the country and has not changed in 20 years, since 1995 when the Wisconsin legislature reduced the rate from $50 per hour. David Carroll presents evidence from the 6AC report, Justice Shortchanged, showing that the constitutional imperative for independent, conflict-free public defense services has given way to fiscal considerations, at a press conference announcing the Wisconsin State Bar Association and Wisconsin Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ petition to the state Supreme Court to raise the hourly compensation rates and ban flat-fee contracts.