prison
23 Results
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A lack of effectiveness and financial oversight define Maine’s right to counsel system
Pleading the Sixth: Maine is the only state in the country that provides all indigent defense services through private attorneys. There are two principal reasons that other states have moved away from using solely private attorneys. First, it is difficult to predict and contain costs in a private attorney system. Second,…
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Assembly line pretrial representation in Delaware results in denial of right to counsel
In a decision that sounds a warning bell for public defense systems throughout the country, the Delaware Supreme Court has held that “[t]he Sixth Amendment requires more than the physical presence of counsel the first day of trial in a serious felony case with the possibility of a lengthy minimum mandatory…
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Will the Virgin Islands finally end the practice of conscripting non-qualified lawyers to represent the indigent accused?
Pleading the Sixth: Although the Virgin Islands has a territorial public defender office, trial court administrative rules historically authorized judges to conscript any attorney barred in the territory – divorce lawyers and real estate lawyers included – to provide representation to the indigent accused in conflict cases. The Virgin Islands…
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Flaws in West Virginia indigent defense system result in non-lawyer representing indigent defendants
Pleading the Sixth: In Logan County, West Virginia, a recent law school graduate who never passed the bar exam was allowed to represent the indigent accused in misdemeanor court. This is an obvious violation of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel, and it exposes flaws in the structure of West…
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Should non-lawyer judges be sending people to jail? SCOTUS asked to review
Pleading the Sixth: In 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that the Fourteenth Amendment permits non-lawyer judges to impose jail time so long as the defendant has the ability to get a do-over in front of a judge who is a lawyer. Now the Court is asked to clarify whether…
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A Cronic resolve to America’s chronic right to counsel deficiencies
Pleading the Sixth: On September 28, 2016, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that indigent defendants have a right to challenge systemic deficiencies at the outset of a case before having to suffer from actual or constructive denial of counsel. (Click here for a companion piece on that ruling.) But…
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SCOTUS decision exposes unequal justice for Native Americans
Pleading the Sixth: On June 13, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court held that prior uncounselled tribal court convictions resulting in jail time can be used to enhance penalties on subsequent offenses in federal courts. Wait! Isn’t that the exact opposite conclusion the Court reached regarding uncounselled convictions from state and federal courts? Why…
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Utah’s right to counsel deficiencies
Pleading the Sixth: On October 26, 2015, the Sixth Amendment Center released a report exposing Utah’s long-standing, deep-rooted indigent defense deficiencies, including no state oversight, prosecutors in charge of some local indigent defense budgets, excessive defender caseloads, and a prevalence of flat fee contracts. Perhaps most telling, more than 62%…
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Why our misdemeanor courts are filled with uncounselled defendants
Pleading the Sixth: On the eve of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the denial of counsel in our nation’s lower courts, here are four reasons people accused of misdemeanors go to jail everyday without speaking to a lawyer, and four reasons no one is doing anything about it. Under the…
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North Carolina’s independence issue exposed
Pleading the Sixth: Not all statewide commissions are equal. For many years, the North Carolina Commission for Indigent Defense Services has been upheld as an example of how best to create a statewide public defender commission. After all, when it comes to the size, composition and diversity of the Commission…
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ACLU files federal 6th Amendment class action lawsuit against a Mississippi County
Pleading the Sixth: On September 23, 2014, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a complaint in U.S. District Court alleging that Scott County, Mississippi routinely detains felony defendants pre-trial without bail while failing to appoint counsel until after formal indictment which, at best, does not occur until three to…
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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.
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