New Jersey Took a Big Step Toward Eliminating Public Defender Fees. But Some Costs Remain.
Advocates say there is more work to be done to ensure public defenders don’t come with a price tag.
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Advocates say there is more work to be done to ensure public defenders don’t come with a price tag.
Citing the pandemic, state legislators asked all agencies to trim their budgets. The cuts could eliminate positions for public defenders who can show a trial or sentence was unjust, overturn convictions, or reduce a person’s time.
Advocates warn that the cuts could push an already overburdened system to the breaking point.
At least two people have killed themselves in jail after waiting for more than a week to be appointed a lawyer.
After the state cut funds for capital defense, there’s a growing wait list of people in jail without a lawyer.
North of the New Mexico border sits Alamosa Municipal Court. An unassuming brick building with a terra cotta roof, the local court looks like a sleepy place you might duck into to pay a traffic ticket. Yet the mostly poor Alamosa residents who appear before Judge Daniel Powell are routinely denied counsel, face jail because […]
If there’s a chance you could wind up in jail, you have the right to an attorney whether or not you can afford one. The U.S. Supreme Court has reaffirmedand clarified this right more than once, in doing so making clear that it applies to both misdemeanor and felony offenses. Yet in Nashville, Tennessee, defendants in misdemeanor courts aren’t […]