Educating for Justice: Training Public Defense Providers to Elevate the Sixth Amendment

In 2018 NACDL filed a public comment in support of a Petition before the Wisconsin Supreme Court to raise the rate of compensation for court appointed counsel, and declaring its current $40 per hour rate as unreasonable. The Court refused to hold the state's rate unreasonable, but did elect to raise its own court assigned case rate from $70/hour to $100/hr.

When a person is accused of a crime, the U.S. Constitution guarantees that person the right to a lawyer even if he or she 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.

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]

New Report Investigates Courts in South Carolina that Convict and Jail Many Defendants without a Lawyer Present -- Washington, DC (April 4, 2016) – Today, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the ACLU of South Carolina released a new and critically important report, Summary Injustice: A Look at Constitutional Deficiencies in South Carolina's Summary Courts.

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]

New Study Reveals 'Profound and Dramatic Understaffing' of Rhode Island Public Defender System-- Washington, DC (Nov. 16, 2017) -- In order to determine whether defenders in Rhode Island are facing a caseload crisis, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (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").

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]

NACDL endorses principles regarding the selection, retention, and removal of public defender system leadership calling for independence, commitment to public defense, confronting racial bias, and consummate advocacy.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers deems that where warranted by the jurisdictional population needs and caseload, a proper public defense delivery system should comprise institutional offices of full-time attorney staff as well as meaningful participation of private attorneys with equal access to training and resources necessary to provide effective criminal defense.

NACDL calls for the creation of an agency to oversee federal public defense that is wholly independent of the judiciary.

NACDL changes the name of its Champion of Indigent Defense Award to Champion of Public Defense Award, effective immediately.

NACDL opposes any further cuts to Federal Defender offices.