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…
Pleading the Sixth: In early April 2017, the New York governor’s office and legislature reached a historic legislative agreement. The state of New York is already committed to pay for the systemic reforms promulgated pursuant to the settlement agreement in…
Pleading the Sixth: On October 24, 2016, the Sixth Amendment Center released its report on trial level indigent defense services in Indiana. Beginning in the 1990s, the “Indiana Model” was widely promoted as potentially the best way to improve the provision…
Pleading the Sixth: On the heels of the 6AC report, the Utah Judicial Council adopted a report on October 26, 2015, by an indigent defense study committee calling for significant state actions, including a statewide commission with authority to set…
Pleading the Sixth: Do psychological factors force public defenders to rationalize sub-par performance in the face of excessive caseloads? And are these unconscious phenomena responsible for the failure to institutionalize caseload controls? These are just a few of the questions…
Pleading the Sixth: On October 30, 2013, U.S. Representative Ted Deutch entered a bill to create a federally funded National Center for the Right to Counsel to aid states in meeting their constitutional obligations under Gideon. Though a national center providing…
