NLADA's Defender Legal Services Division offers a wide range of publications on indigent defense topics. Many publications are free to members, while others are available at special membership rates.

Newly released - Right to Counsel Report

Justice Denied_ America’s Continuing Neglect of Our Constitutional Right to Counsel (pdf, 4 Mb)

For the first time since the Gideon decision, an independent, diverse group, whose members include the relevant constituencies of the justice system, has examined the nation's ways of providing defense services for the poor and is sounding the alarm about the grave problems that exist today nationwide. The National Right to Counsel Committee was established to address the full dimension of the difficulties in indigent defense from a national perspective. The Committee's members include persons with judicial, law enforcement, prosecution, and defense experience, as well as policymakers, victim advocates, and scholars. The membership also includes a person who was convicted of a crime that he did not commit, sent to prison, and later exonerated due to DNA evidence.

The report, released by The Constitution Project on Tuesday, April 14, 2009, details the endemic and systemic failures of the indigent defense system and recommends twenty-two specific and urgently needed reforms to fix them.

For more information about NLADA's right to counsel activities, please contact Richard Goemann, director of Defender Legal Services. For information about The Constitution Project and this report, please send inquiries to info@constitutionproject.org

Ordering Publications

Download this form (msword, 324 Kb) to order the publications from NLADA.

Free Downloads

Ten Core Principles for Providing Quality Delinquency Representation through Public Defense Delivery Systems (Second Edition) (pdf, 499 Kb) NLADA and the National Juvenile Defender Center partner to develop and issue the second edition of the Ten Core Principles for Providing Quality Delinquency Representation through Public Defense Delivery Systems (July 2008).

Serotonin Deficit and Impulsive Violence: Does Your Case Fit? (pdf, 29 Kb) , by Dr. Paul Rossby, Ph.D. In order to appreciate the critical differences in brain chemistry that can lead to seemingly inexplicable acts of cruelty, it is necessary to have a basic understanding of the brain itself, the organ of behavior. This article discusses the criteria which indicate that an analysis of serotonin function is warranted in order to assess the defendant’s biological capacity to control his impulses.
From the Fall 2003 issue of Cornerstone

Mental Retardation: A Primer to Cope with Expert Testimony (pdf, 21 Kb) , by Dr. I. Bruce Frumkin. With increasing frequency, attorneys in civil and criminal cases litigate issues involving intellectual functioning. As with all forensic assessments in the civil context, no IQ or diagnosis automatically renders an individual incompetent to execute a will, to consent to treatment, to manage one’s affairs, or to be caretaker for a minor. Often, a comprehensive assessment of a client’s intellectual functioning is needed to litigate a variety of these issues.
From the Fall 2003 issue of Cornerstone.

Reentry—the Tie That Binds Legal Aid Attorneys and Public Defenders (pdf, 118 Kb) , by Cynthia Works, NLADA's director of training and education, this article addresses a number of reentry questions, including: What does the term “reentry ” mean? Whose responsibility is it to serve these clients —civil legal aid attorneys or public defenders? Moreover, why should civil legal aid attorneys and public defenders be concerned about the hundreds of thousands of ex-offenders returning to their communities each year?
This article was first published in Clearinghouse Review, 37 Clearinghouse Rev. 328 (Sept.-Oct. 2003)

Raising Voices: Taking Public Defense to the Streets: A monograph from The Brennan Center on how community-oriented defense improves client representation and builds support for defense funding

Report of the Illinois Commission on Capital Punishment : 85 recommendations for systemic reform to prevent executions of the innocent, issued in April 2002

Bolder Management for Public Defense: Leadership in Three Dimensions : the first in a series of papers sponsored by the US Bureau of Justice Assistance from the Executive Session on Public Defense, Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, funded by Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice (December 2001)

What Policymakers Need to Know To Improve Public Defense Systems : the second in a series of papers developed by the Executive Session on Public Defense at Harvard (January 2002)

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