As the criminal legal system explores ways to resume court proceedings, stakeholders must balance public health concerns with efforts to uphold core constitutional rights. Moderated by Professor Andrea Roth (UC Berkeley Law), panelists Sherry Boston (District Attorney, DeKalb County, GA), Martín Sabelli (Law Offices of Martín Sabelli, San Francisco, CA) and Circuit Court Judge Annie O’Connell (Louisville, KY) discuss the legal and practical definitions of what it means to confront a witness, hold a public trial, and ensure an accused receives the effective assistance of counsel.

The Sixth Amendment guarantee to a speedy trial is a cornerstone of the American criminal legal system. Its broad cloak serves to protect the interests of the accused, witnesses, the government and the community in ensuring meaningful and timely resolution to criminal charges. 

The Sixth Amendment guarantee to a speedy trial is a cornerstone of the American criminal legal system. Its broad cloak serves to protect the interests of the accused, witnesses, the government and the community in ensuring meaningful and timely resolution to criminal charges. Today, as judges, prosecutors, and defendants begin to navigate the aftermath of long periods of court closures and the resulting backlog of cases, stakeholders face new questions and challenges in meeting obligations to community health and safety while also protecting core constitutional rights.

The right to counsel, guaranteed by the 6^th Amendment, promises every person, regardless of their charges or resources, has a skilled, zealous advocate by their side when they stand accused of a crime. As Gideon and other cases recognized, defendants' procedural and substantive rights cannot be protected unless every person has an attorney with the resources, skills, and independence to advocate for them. NACDL works to help reform inadequate public defense systems through training and technical assistance, public education, advocacy, and litigation.

Holistic defense recognizes that the impact of a defendant’s case can extend beyond one practice area. This defense model assembles teams of lawyers by integrating practice areas and encouraging collaboration: a criminal defense lawyer sits next to a family law attorney and across from an immigration attorney.

A report by the Sixth Amendment Center, commissioned by NACDL and supported by the NACDL Foundation for Criminal Justice and Koch Industries. [Released October 2016]

and Attorney Workload Standards

The Sixth Amendment's promise that every person accused of a crime is entitled to counsel is a hollow one when the attorney appointed lacks the time and resources to provide meaningful representation. In order to determine whether defenders in Rhode Island are facing a caseload crisis, NACDL, the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants (ABA SCLAID), and the accounting firm of BlumShapiro undertook an assessment of the Rhode Island Public Defender system ("RIPD"). [Released November 2017]

The Fourth Amendment has entered the digital age. New surveillance technologies and programs — from GPS tracking devices to automated license plate readers to bulk data collection — have upended traditional law enforcement practices and created new challenges for defense lawyers. This report offers an overview of this symposium and the substantive areas of concern related to new technological and legal changes that impact Fourth Amendment protections in criminal cases. [Released June 2016]

When a person is accused of a crime, the U.S. Constitution guarantees that person the right to a lawyer even if they cannot afford one. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this basic principle more than a half century ago in Gideon v. Wainwright, and in subsequent cases that expanded the right to misdemeanor prosecutions. Yet this right is violated every day in South Carolina’s magistrate and municipal courts – collectively referred to as summary courts – where scores of people are convicted, sentenced, and sometimes incarcerated, without having been represented by counsel. [Released April 2016]

The crisis in public defense in Louisiana has been well-documented by the news media over the past several years. Stories of overloaded public defenders, unrepresented individuals languishing in jail, and mass pleas have shocked the nation’s conscience, but the system’s shortcomings have long evaded reform. However, much coverage of the public defense crisis in Louisiana, the state with the highest incarceration rate in the nation, has focused its attention on the consequences of the crisis rather than its causes. [Released March 2017]

Researchers systematically gathered data from magistrate and municipal courts in five counties. The research confirms that there is a pervasive lack of procedural justice and fairness in these courts. Far too many accused persons are not advised of basic constitutional rights, and even when they are, those rights are not respected. [Released January 2017]

In 2012, NACDL collaborated with the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants (SCLAID) to host an innovative project to foment broad-based reform. This report highlights the wide-ranging discussion and innovative proposals for reform discussed during the focus group. [Released January 2013]

The explosive growth of misdemeanor cases is placing a staggering burden on America's courts. Defenders across the country are forced to carry unethical caseloads that leave too little time for clients to be properly represented. As a result, constitutional obligations are left unmet and taxpayers' money is wasted. [Released April 2009]

On April 6 and 7, 2017, NACDL, the Foundation for Criminal Justice, the Monroe Freedman Institute for the Study of Legal Ethics at Hofstra University’s Maurice A. Deane School of Law, the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, the Center for Court Innovation, and the State of New York Unified Court System convened a conference designed to explore the impediments to and reforms needed to ensure effective justice in all stages of the criminal process, with a particular focus on the judicial role in high-volume misdemeanor courts. [Released December 2017]