For more than a year, NACDL has examined Maine’s public defense system, providing technical assistance to MCILS under a grant from the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance. ... As the nation’s preeminent criminal defense bar, NACDL is keenly interested in ensuring public defense providers have caseloads that are reasonable and allow them to fulfill their legal, ethical, and constitutional obligations.

Persons with disabilities represent one of the nation's largest minority populations. They are overrepresented in the criminal legal system as persons who are accused as well as persons who are victims of crime. In both the criminal legal system and in society generally, persons with disabilities are often denied meaningful access to the processes and protections afforded to the general population. These training materials and resources provide introduction to some of the issues and challenges that exist in our criminal legal system for persons with disabilities. 

The Champion of Public Defense Award recognizes an individual or group (lawyers and non-lawyers) for exceptional efforts in making positive changes to a local, county, state, or federal public defense system. Although the outstanding direct, individual representation of every defendant is one of NACDL's foremost goals, this award is intended to highlight efforts toward systemic advances through legislation, litigation, or other strategies.

There is no question – racial and ethnic disparities abound in our criminal justice system. Racial bias, both conscious and unconscious, results in more people of color being stopped, arrested, convicted and imprisoned than ever before. Criminal defense lawyers and public defenders are not immune to bias and, of all people in the system, should be aware of their biases and keep them in check.

As a result of generous grant funding, NACDL is able to offer scholarship assistance to public defense attorneys to attend training programs.

This month Patrick Boylan reviews Free Justice: A History of the Public Defender in Twentieth-Century America by Sara Mayeux.

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.

Issues of racial disparity can be found in every aspect of our nation's criminal system, from stop to sentencing. Public defense attorneys have an important role to play in challenging bias and disparity within the courtroom, within their offices, and within themselves. NACDL is committed to empowering defenders to address the ways in which race impacts our court system, our clients, our communities, and the defenders who serve them. 

2022CV001027 (Brown County Cir.)

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), the Wisconsin Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (WACDL), Winston & Strawn LLP, and New York University School of Law's Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law filed a civil rights class action lawsuit on behalf of indigent defendants in Wisconsin who lack access to timely appointed counsel in criminal proceedings.

04-05405 (La. 14th J.D)

An NACDL-supported class action filed by pro bono counsel at Baker Botts LLP and Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP, the suit alleged that deficiencies in the Calcasieu Parish public defense system were so extreme that defendants were being denied their right to counsel as guaranteed by the U.S. and Louisiana Constitutions. The lawsuit alleged that due to substantial under-funding, public defender clients did not have their cases properly investigated, had infrequent communication with their attorneys, and experienced extraordinary delays in the processing of their cases.

10-cv-02930-JLK (D. Colo.)

Filed by pro bono counsel at Morrison & Foerster LLP, this lawsuit sought to invalidate Colorado Revised Statute § 16-7-301(4), which required a defendant to meet with a prosecutor before being assigned counsel. In Rothgery v. Gillespie County, 554 U.S. 191, 213 (2008), the U.S. Supreme Court held that a defendant’s right to counsel under the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution attaches at “a criminal defendant’s initial appearance before a judicial officer, where he learns the charge against him and his liberty is subject to restriction.”

Recent state and federal legislation relating to public defense and the right to counsel.

Public defense issues and developments in Indiana

Public defense issues and developments in California

Public defense issues and developments in Idaho