Sentences with phrase «public defense system»

For more than a century, we have pioneered access to justice at the national, state, and local levels in multiple ways: helping create many of the first public defense systems in the country; supporting the Legal Services Corporation; developing nationally applicable standards for legal representation; and advocating for groundbreaking legislation.

The New York Civil Liberties Union and the law firm of Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP today announced a historic settlement that overhauls public defense in five counties and lays the foundation for statewide reform of New York's broken public defense system.

«Over the long term, proper governance would protect New York's public defense system from political pressures and political intervention,» Klein wrote in her letter.

The lawsuit charged that New York State's decision to abdicate responsibility for public defense to its counties resulted in a patchwork of often understaffed, poorly resourced and largely dysfunctional public defense systems where defendants were routinely arraigned without attorneys, urged to take plea bargains regardless of the facts of their cases, burdened by excessively high bail, and incarcerated for shockingly long periods for misdemeanors and petty crimes.

«New York State has recognized not only that a lack of resources and high caseloads make it impossible for public defense attorneys to represent their clients, but also that a functioning public defense system must pay attention to the quality of representation provided to the poor,» said NYCLU Senior Staff Attorney Corey Stoughton, lead counsel on the case.

Indeed, Idaho Gov. C.L. «Butch» Otter, many legislators and legal experts who have studied the issue on behalf of the state have all acknowledged that Idaho's patchwork public defense system is deficient at best, and likely unconstitutional.

January 11, 2017 — «Idaho's Supreme Court will soon decide whether to revive an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit against the state over its faulty public defense system.

In subsequent years, NLADA established the National Defender Project to strengthen public defense systems, filed an amicus brief in the landmark In re Gault (1967) which saw the Supreme Court extend to children the rights established by the Gideon decision, and produced guidelines to improve representation by public defenders.

With New York's public defense system in the national spotlight, the state has entered this agreement and shown it will no longer stand by while innocent people lose their families, homes and jobs because they're too poor to hire private lawyers.

«This settlement marks what we hope and expect to be the beginning of sweeping reforms of New York's broken public defense system,» said NYCLU Associate Legal Director Christopher Dunn.

«On every placard is a story about an actual case in New York, where the public defense system failed a person's right to counsel,» said Bob Perry, the group's legislative director.

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, said today that he supported the state taking over the public defense system in NY to ensure adequate funding for legal representation for poor New Yorkers.

«On every placard is a story about an actual case in New York, where the public defense system failed a person's right to counsel,» said Bob Perry, New York Civil Liberties Union's legislative director.

«On every placard is a story about an actual case in New York, where the public defense system failed a person's right to counsel,» said Bob Perry is the New York Civil Liberties Union legislative director.

«On every placard is a story about an actual case in New York, where the public defense system failed a person ’s

Under the agreement, the state will adopt major reforms focusing on five New York counties — Ontario, Onondaga (Syracuse), Schuyler, Suffolk and Washington — that were chosen because their public defense systems are all different and cover communities large and small, but are all emblems of New York's flawed approach.

April 29, 2016 — «The U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney Wendy Olson are requesting to weigh in on a class - action lawsuit against Idaho's public defense system.

«For far too long, poor criminal defendants in New York have been railroaded by a public defense system that did little more than process guilty pleas and ruin lives.»

* How do we go about changing the public defense system, which serves ~ 80 % of all defendants?

Attorneys on both sides told the high court Wednesday that they agree Idaho's public defense system has serious deficiencies.

But last year a lower court judge dismissed the lawsuit, partly because the judge said he believed a court ruling requiring the state to adequately fund the public defense system would violate the separation of powers.

They contend that state officials have known for years that Idaho's public defense system is broken, and that by not fixing the problems the state is violating the 6th Amendment rights of its citizens.

The nation's public defense systems were also taking shape during this period.