Analysis & Commentary
Indigent Defense Reform
Supreme Court Preview, Second Session: Access to Justice, National Security, and Civil Liberties
In advance of the second session of the Supreme Court's 2011 term, the Brennan Center calls attention to five cases involving important issues of access to justice, national security, and civil liberties.
Authored by: Sidney S. Rosdeitcher and William J. Taylor, Jr.
– 10/26/11
Secrecy, Fear, and the National Security State: A lecture on American democracy
Fritz Schwarz delivered a lecture entitled "The National Security State and Other Dangers to Democracy" on November 11, 2010, at the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at the Free University of Berlin.
"Crisis and its cousin fear always make it tempting to ignore the wise restraints that keep us free. That is not new. But America has been living in an atmosphere of crisis for an unusally long time."
Authored by: Frederick A.O. "Fritz" Schwarz, Jr.
– 11/22/10
Community Oriented Defender Network | Spring 2010 Update
The COD Network is taking strides to address racial disparities in the criminal justice system and expand the Network’s reach. Read about our latest efforts to improve justice for indigent defendants and new opportunities for collaboration.
– 04/23/10
The Right to Counsel: Is it Being Denied?
Authored by: Gabe Pressman
– 04/06/10
N.Y.‘s poor get the short end of the gavel: Pass a law to improve access to attorneys
NY Daily News editorial from former Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau on the Hurrell-Harring case and the inadequacy of New York State's public defender system.
Authored by: Robert Morgenthau
– 02/11/10
Attorney General Eric Holder on Indigent Defense Reform
The Hon. Eric H. Holder was the recipient of a Brennan Legacy Award on Nov. 16, 2009; his speech, transcribed here, focuses on the necessity of reforms for indigent defense, and the current state of our public defender networks in the United States.
Authored by: Eric H. Holder
– 11/17/09
Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks Out on the Need to Address the Crisis in Indigent Defense
In several speeches in recent months, Attorney General Eric Holder has emphasized the need to reform the indigent defense system if the country is to uphold its promise of “equal justice for all.”
– 07/17/09
How Defenders Can Secure Racial Justice Policy Reform
Working through the Community Oriented Defender movement.
Authored by: Melanca D. Clark
– 03/01/09
Out of the Courtroom and into the Neighborhood
Public defenders embrace community defenders. They have begun to embrace more community-orientated forms of advocacy that push a defender’s skill beyond the courtroom and the individual case.
Authored by: Kirsten D. Levingston
– 10/01/07