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
-
December 1, 2017
Maine Work Group on Indigent Legal Services Augusta, Maine
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.
-
November 17, 2017
Maine Work Group on Indigent Legal Services Augusta, Maine
Maine’s legislature created a task force to examine how its indigent defense services can be provided with greater cost certainty. 6AC Executive Director David Carroll and Staff Counsel Mike Tartaglia explain the importance of oversight and accountability in a state-funded system where private attorneys bill hourly for providing representation to indigent people.
-
November 10, 2017
Indiana Task Force on Public Defense Indianapolis, Indiana
6AC Executive Director David Carroll addresses the task force members about the findings and recommendations in 6AC’s report, The Right to Counsel in Indiana: Evaluation of Trial Level Indigent Defense Services. He explains how the model Indiana currently uses to provide public defense representation legitimizes and institutionalizes the choices made by some counties to not meet the constitutional requirements for providing effective representation. Carroll also guides the task force members in examining models used in other states to deliver Sixth Amendment services.
-
April 10, 2017
Tennessee Supreme Court, Indigent Representation Task Force Nashville, Tennessee
The Tennessee Supreme Court Indigent Representation Task Force releases its report, fulfilling its charge to determine how the state can deliver the right to counsel in a more efficient manner. 6AC Executive Director David Carroll participates in the press conference, following on 6AC’s provision of technical assistance to the Task Force supported by funding from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance.
-
April 5, 2017
Nevada Senate Judiciary Committee Carson City, Nevada
The Nevada Senate Judiciary Committee is considering a bill to create a statewide Right to Counsel Commission. On written request of Senator Segerblom, chair of the Committee, 6AC Executive Director David Carroll provides technical assistance to the committee, explaining Nevada’s unique right to counsel history and the current deficiencies in providing indigent defense services in rural counties.
-
March 22, 2017
Idaho Public Defender Commission & General Assembly Boise, Idaho
Executive Director David Carroll discusses the progress made by the Public Defender Commission in implementing recent legislative changes to ensure the right to counsel, including comparisons to similarly situated states and next steps.
-
October 24, 2016
Columbia University, Columbia Law School New York, New York
Deputy Director Jon Mosher presents the “Indigent Defense State of the Nation” to a criminal adjudication class of 150 LL.M. and third-year law students. The presentation highlights the current problems in providing the right to counsel in Indiana, Utah, Louisiana, Missouri, and Nevada, as indicative of indigent defense deficiencies throughout the country.
July 6, 2016
KABF Radio, It Could Be You Little Rock, Arkansas
Host John Sarna interviews 6AC Executive Director David Carroll for an hour on the state of the right to counsel in America and in Arkansas specifically. Topics include the absence of counsel in state misdemeanor courts and the appointment of counsel in name only in felony courts.
June 16, 2016
Right to Counsel National Campaign at American University, One-Hour Webinar By videoconference
In an effort to inform and engage policymakers, criminal justice stakeholders, and the community on the importance of meaningfully carrying out the Sixth Amendment right to counsel, the Right to Counsel National Campaign at American University, within the Justice Programs Office, hosts a quarterly webinar covering an array of Sixth Amendment related topics. 6AC Executive Director David Carroll presents a comprehensive overview of right to counsel legislation in the states from the most recent legislative sessions.
May 20, 2016
Council of State Governments – West Salt Lake City, Utah
The Council of State Governments West supports legislative coordination amongst 13 western states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming) and three territories (American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam). 6AC Executive Director David Carroll presents a history of the right to counsel in the West while exploring pending systemic concerns and recent legislative victories.
May 3, 2016
Practicing Law Institute, One-Hour Briefing Seminar By videoconference
Executive Director David Carroll and Kathryn Marshall Ali, senior associate-in-charge of U.S. pro bono at Hogan Lovells US LLP, discuss “How the Private Bar Can Impact America’s Indigent Defense Crisis.”
April 14, 2016
Harvard Law School, course on Criminal Procedure: Adjudication “from bail to jail” Cambridge, Massachusetts
Executive Director David Carroll speaks to law students as part of a two-day panel of leaders who are engaging creatively in efforts to improve and reform the criminal justice system. Others on the panel are Victor Rosario, Cathy Bennett, and Ron Sullivan, in the finale to the course taught by Lecturer on Law Lisa Kavanaugh.
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.
