Reports & Research
Here is a collection of publications about public defense and the right to counsel. These resources provide a background of the problems with public defense delivery systems and explore solutions to these problems.
Background
Video: Introduction to the Right to Counsel (National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, 2018)
The Trial Penalty: The Sixth Amendment Right To Trial on the Verge of Extinction and How To Save It (NACDL & Foundation for Criminal Justice, 2018)
Foreward to 78 Albany Law Review 1175 (Jonathan Lippman, 2015)
Gideon at 50 Project: A Three-Part Examination of Public Defense in America (NACDL & FCJ, 2013)
Gideon at 50: Three Reforms to Revive the Right to Counsel (Brennan Center for Justice, 2013)
Justice Denied: America's Continuing Neglect of Our Constitutional Right to Counsel (The Constitution Project National Right to Counsel Committee, 2009)
Gideon's Broken Promise: America's Continuing Quest for Equal Justice (American Bar Association Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants, 2004)
Counsel at First Appearance
Don't I Need a Lawyer: Pretrial Justice and the Right to Counsel at First Judicial Bail Hearing (The Constitution Project National Right to Counsel Committee, 2015)
Early Appointment of Counsel: The Law, Implementation, and Benefits (Sixth Amendment Center & Pretrial Justice Institute, 2014)
Exploring Solutions
Unique New York? Theorizing the Impact of Resources on the Quality of Defense Representation in a Deviant State (Andrew L. B. Davies, Giza Lopes, Alyssa Clark, 2019)
Researcher-Practitioner Partnerships: Applying a Collaborative Model to Improve Indigent Defense Systems (National Legal Aid & Defender Association & National Criminal Justice Association, 2019)
A Fair Fight: Achieving Indigent Defense Resource Parity (Brennan Center, 2019)
Prosecution and Public Defense: The Prosecutor's Role in Securing a Meaningful Right to an Attorney (John Jay College Institute for Innovation in Prosecution, 2019)
Beyond the Adversarial System: Achieving the Challenge (NLADA & Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, 2018)
Texas Mental Health Defender Programs (Texas Indigent Defense Commission, 2018)
Jonathan Rapping's plenary, The Power of Culture: Working Together to Achieve Justice (2017)
Joint Statement in Support of the Use of Pretrial Risk Assessment Instruments (Gideon’s Promise, NLADA, National Association of Public Defenders, NACDL, & NLADA American Council of Chief Defenders, 2017)
Safety and Justice Challenge Defender Communications Toolkit (NLADA, 2017)
Judicial Responsibility for Justice in Criminal Courts Conference Report (NACDL & FCJ & Freedman Institute, 2017)
Make Them Hear You: Participatory Defense and the Struggle for Criminal Justice Reform (Janet Moore, Marla Sandys, & Raj Jayadev, 2015)
The Measure of Good Lawyering: Evaluating Holistic Defense in Practice (Cynthia G. Lee, Brian J. Ostrom, & Matthew Kleiman, 2015)
National Indigent Defense Reform: The Solution is Multi-faceted (NACDL & ABA, 2012)
Juvenile Justice
Juvenile Facilities Checklist for Defenders (National Juvenile Defender Center, 2019)
Indefensible: The Lack of Juvenile Defense Data (National Center for Juvenile Justice, 2015)
Juvenile Defense Attorneys: A Critical Protection Against Injustice (NJDC, 2014)
National Juvenile Defense Standards (NJDC, 2013)
Innovation Brief: Raising the Standards of Juvenile Indigent Defense (Juvenile Law Center, 2011)
Research and Data
Map of Public Defense Funding, Delivery Models, State Independence, and Workload Standards (Gideon at 50, 2013)
What is the State of Empirical Research on Indigent Defense Nationwide? A Brief Overview and Suggestions for Future Research (Nadine Frederique, Patricia Joseph, & R. Christopher C. Hild, 2015)
How Do We "Do Data" in Public Defense? (Andrew Lucas Blaize Davies, 2015)
The ABA "Ten Principles of a Public Defense Delivery System": How Close Are We to Being Able to Put Them into Practice? (Caroline S. Cooper, 2015)
The Trials of Indigent Defense: Type of Counsel and Case Outcomes in Felony Jury (Erin York Cornwell, 2015)
What Makes Lawyers Happy? Transcending the Anecdotes with Data from 6200 Lawyers (Lawrence S. Krieger & Kennon M. Sheldon, 2015)
Indigent Defense Services in the United States (US Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2014)
State Government Indigent Defense Expenditures (US Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2014)
State-Specific Reports
Texas
The Right to Counsel in Armstrong County & Potter County, Texas: Evaluation of Adult Trial Level Indigent Defense Presentation (6AC, 2019)
Reporting the State of Public Defense in 254 Counties Through a New Web Portal (NLADA, 2019)
Kentucky
Supervising and Supporting Contract Attorneys Handling Conflict-of-Interest Cases (NLADA, 2019)
Michigan
The Right to Counsel in Wayne County, Michigan: Evaluation of Assigned Counsel Services in the Third Judicial Circuit (6AC, 2019)
Maine
The Right to Counsel in Maine: Evaluation of Services Provided by the Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services (6AC, 2019)
Mississippi
Mississippi's No-Counsel Courts (Georgia State University College of Law Center for Access to Justice, 2018)
DelawarE
State of Crisis: Chronic Neglect and Underfunding for Louisiana's Public Defense System (NACDL & FCJ 2017)
The Crucible of Adversarial Testing: Access to Counsel in Delaware's Criminal Courts (6AC, 2014)
Indiana
The Right to Counsel in Indiana: Evaluation of Trial Level Indigent Defense Services (6AC, 2016)
South Carolina
Summary Injustice: A Look at Constitutional Deficiencies in South Carolina’s Summary Courts (NACDL & American Civil Liberties Union, 2016)
Montana
Spreading Justice to Rural Montana: Rurality's Impacts on Supply and Demand for Legal Services in Montana (Hillary A. Wandler, 2015)
Louisiana
Me and Mr. Jones: A Systems-Based Analysis of a Catastrophic Defense Outcome (Pamela R. Metzger, 2015)
Wisconsin
Justice Shortchanged: Assigned Counsel Compensation in Wisconsin (6AC, 2015)
Florida
Three Minute Justice: Haste and Waste in Florida's Misdemeanor Courts (NACDL, 2011)
Workload Assessments
The Rhode Island Project: A Study of the Rhode Island Public Defender System and Attorney Workload Standards (NACDL & ABA, 2017)
Indigent Defense Reforms in Brooklyn, New York: An Analysis of Mandatory Case Caps and Attorney Workloads (Center for Court Innovations, 2015)
The Committee for Public Counsel Services Answering Gideon's Call Project Attorney Workload Assessment (CCI, 2014)
The Missouri Project: A Study of the Missouri Public Defender System and Attorney Workload Standards (ABA, 2014)