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ACCD Executive Summary - February 05 IssueIn This Issue
Chief's CornerThe ACCD gathers once again in our Nation's Capitol to discuss issues of great importance to the defender community. Specifically, chief and deputy-chief defenders will meet with members of Congress to discuss federal legislation on Law Student Loan Forgiveness. Law Student Loan ForgivenessLoan Forgiveness for defenders and prosecutors is back before the 109th U.S. Congress, but may take the form of a tax credit for eligible attorneys rather than the subsidies contained in previous legislation. The Prosecutors and Defenders Incentive Act (HR 198), introduced in the House by Representative David Scott (D-Ga.), contains the same language previously considered in bills sponsored by Senator Richard Durbin (D-Ill.). NLADA has the National District Attorney Association (NDAA) as a partner on this effort, and the current thought is to try for an earmark in an appropriation bill at the end of the session allowing for a full tax credit deduction from owed federal income taxes. Our tactic at this point should continue to enlist cosponsors of H.R.198 with the understanding that our goal of providing relief from staggering student loans will be pursued in the manner that appears most politically promising. ABA Ethics Inquiry UpdateNLADA has been informed that the American Bar Association (ABA) Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility considered the request for a Formal Ethics Opinion concerning excessive Public Defender caseloads at the ABA Midyear Meeting in Salt Lake City, UT. Our request for an ethics opinion from the ABA on the obligations of overburdened public defenders was discussed during the Ethics Committee’s January 12 teleconference. At that time, the Committee decided that Ethics Counsel George Kuhlman would take the lead in drafting a letter for the Committee’s review noting applicable previous ABA ethics opinions, which was presented to the Committee at its February 11-12 meeting. We anticipate a further response from the Standing Committee's Chair, Charles E. McCallum, in the days following the Standing Committee's February meeting and will brief the ACCD on any developments from that conversation. For more information on Chief's Corner, contact Ross Shepard, Director of Defender Legal Services, NLADA. (202) 452-0620 x212 r.shepard@nlada.org Feature ArticleFormer Illinois Governor George Ryan to Keynote NLADA Life in the Balance ConferenceParticipants and partners focused on a common goal will converge at NLADA's Life in the Balance, the nation's largest capital defense seminar, March 18 - 22, 2005 in New Orleans, LA. The Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel, Project & Capital Resource Counsel; the National Association of Sentencing Advocates; and the American Bar Association Death Penalty Representation Project have partnered with NLADA to meet the unique needs of our capital defense team members as well as our general capital defense community. Presentations will be presented on cutting edge forensic science, mental retardation, mental illness dovetailed with skills training for investigators, mitigation specialists and defense lawyers. On Sunday, March 20 at 8:00 a.m., Former Illinois Governor George H. Ryan will present the conference keynote address, focusing on his personal journey opposing the death penalty, evolving into a staunch advocate against its imposition. During a single term as governor of Illinois, he established himself around the world as a leading advocate for the reform of his state's troubled capital punishment system and as a political pioneer who was never afraid to break down partisan and ideological barriers to enhance the lives of the people who elected him to serve. Between 1999 and 2003, Governor Ryan successfully led a forward-looking, efficient and effective administration that stressed advancements in education, a higher standard of living for the state's residents and improvements to Illinois' human and physical infrastructure. In 2003, after an exhaustive study documenting serious flaws in the Illinois capital punishment system Governor Ryan commuted to life in prison the sentences of all 156 inmates awaiting execution in the state's prisons. This act of courage, justice and fairness was a first for any governor of any state in the union and underscored Governor Ryan's fear that the flawed administration of Illinois' capital punishment laws might some day lead to the execution of an innocent man or woman. Troubled by these numbers, Governor Ryan in 2000 became the first state chief executive to place a moratorium on any further executions while an intensive study of the capital punishment system was undertaken. That study produced more than 80 suggested reforms designed to prevent the ultimate miscarriage of justice earned Governor Ryan both controversy and praise from around the United States and from around the world, as well as a nomination for the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize. Life in the Balance -- Bringing the Best in Capital Training to You! For more information visit: www.nlada.org/training. Guest ArticleWhy Grand Juries Work for the Defenseby Michael ColemanIt’s time to get over your fear of sending your client into the Grand Jury to testify in his/her own behalf. Some of us in New York have had an active practice in this area for the past 25 years with rather remarkable results. Our “blow-out” rate has consistently been about 50% (significantly higher than our acquitted rate at trial). The factors contributing to this success are 1.) the district attorney usually only puts in a stripped down case, 2.) our clients have the freedom to say whatever they want (even things that would be inadmissible at trial), and 3.) Grand Jurors rarely hear the other side of the story and often indicting every other case before them. It gives them the chance to stop being a rubber-stamp and do the “fair” thing in one case out of the many they hear. There are many factors which go into the decision to put him/her in but if your client has a story to tell, is fairly verbal and especially if they have made a statement already to the police, consider this as a real option. It may be their only chance to get their story out and if they are incarcerated they get to go home months sooner than if they waited for trial. Michael Coleman is Executive Director of New York County Defender Services. NLADA is now accepting articles for ACCD Executive Summary. If you have an article you would like to appear in an upcoming edition, please contact Jon Mosher at j.mosher@nlada.org. Leadership UpdateThe National Defender Leadership Institute (NDLI) has participated in a number of exciting trainings in the two months since the NLADA Annual Conference. On December 9, 2004, Catherine Beane, Cait Clarke, and Chuck Wynder traveled to Annapolis, Maryland, to present the Nuts and Bolts of Leadership and Management to a group of 100 supervisors and managers from the Maryland Office of the Public Defender. Dynamic defender leaders from NLADA and the ACCD, including Karl Doss, Richard Goemann, Robert Listenbee, Gerry Smyth, Robin Steinberg, Pat Wynn, and Suzy Story, facilitated small groups as they worked through various management challenges. Maryland Public Defender Nancy Forster set forth a vision for the agency as a network of community problem-solvers focused on providing client-centered representation. Similarly, on January 30, 2005, Beane and Clarke joined the faculty of the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy’s (DPA) Defender Management Institute for a three-day conference on leadership and management. The 25-member faculty included NLADA and ACCD defender-leaders Fred Friedman, David Knutson, Fern Laethem, Ira Mickenberg, Ed Monahan, Jon Rapping, Jack Rogers, Jeff Sherr, John Stuart, Phyllis Subin, and Jo-Ann Wallace, who were paired as small group facilitators with managers from DPA. The conference began with a keynote address by Kentucky Public Advocate Ernie Lewis, in which he described his vision of creating “communities of hope and justice” throughout the State of Kentucky. Lewis’ remarks served as a guide throughout the conference as participants heard from Knox County Public Defender Mark Stevens, as well as Stuart, Rogers and Wallace, about the important role of defenders as leaders in their communities. Central to the conference was the utilization of four “frames” of leadership (structural, human resources, political and symbolic) to address the management challenges that face supervisors and managers throughout the agency. In addition, Beane and Clarke have worked together to facilitate a smooth transition in the leadership of NDLI. Clarke’s stewardship over the past three years has enabled NDLI to grow into an important resource for defender leaders throughout the country. In the coming weeks, NDLI will continue to build on this solid foundation through long-range planning and through ventures into Virginia, South Carolina, and Las Vegas, Nevada, for additional trainings and facilitation of indigent defense reform meetings. We look forward to reporting back! For more information on the National Defender Leadership Institute (NDLI), contact Catherine Beane, Director of NDLI, NLADA. (202) 452-0620 x226 c.beane@nlada.org Evaluations & Technical Assistance UpdateMontana Statewide Indigent Defense System Bill Gets First HearingOn January 18, the Montana Legislature had the first hearing on Senate Bill 146 creating a statewide public defender system. The bill, if enacted, would create a statewide indigent defense commission to oversee all indigent defense services across the state and with the authority to promulgate standards to performance, caseloads, attorney qualification, training, contracting and uniform data collection. Senate Bill 146 would authorize the new commission to hire a State Chief Public Defender to oversee up to 11 regional delivery systems. The bill would roll the existing State Appellate Public Defender office under the auspices of the commission, as well as created a centralized training office. The bill was introduced by Senator McGee, the minority Republican Leader in the Senate, and was heard in the Judiciary Committee chaired by Democratic Senator Wheat. McGee and Wheat were part of a bipartisan sub-committee that is chiefly responsible for drafting the legislation. Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath was the first of seventeen people or organizations to testify in favor of the bill. Others included, the Catholic Charities, Montana Association of Counties, the Montana District Attorney's Association, and the City manager of Billings. In fact, every single person who testified at the hearing spoke in favor of the bill. The final testimony was from the Governor's Budget Chief. He closed by saying that the Governor considers repairing indigent defense to be one of his top three priorities of his administration. NLADA is working closely with the ACLU to make sure that the appropriation for the bill is adequate to ensure that the new commission can complete its mission. Louisiana Reform Still Pushing ForwardOn February 11th, the Louisiana Task Force on Indigent Defense will meet to consider and discuss various structural reform proposals. Currently, the Louisiana Public Defenders Association (LaPDA) is advocating a statewide commission model that would allow for local jurisdictions to retain administration of their indigent defense systems if they objectively show that the system is in compliance with commission promulgated standards. LaPDA has adopted the Georgia performance guidelines into their proposal. The Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (LACDL) is proposing a more wholesale reform approach that would eliminate all existing local indigent defender boards and place the authority for the administration of all indigent defense services in the hands of a 15-member commission. The commission would hire a Defender General to oversee centralized capital, training, appellate, and management information services units. Five Deputy Defender Generals would oversee regional offices that would deliver services through a combination of staffed offices and contract services in each of the states five appellate circuits. For more information on the work of NLADA regarding evaluations and technical assistance, contact David Carroll, Director of Research & Evaluations, NLADA. (202) 452-0620 d.carroll@nlada.org Training UpdateGeorgia Public Defender Standards Council Debuts New Lawyer Training ProgramYou won’t be able to keep bad things from happening to all of your clients but as long as you can go home every night, look yourself in the mirror, and honestly say that you have done everything within your power to provide justice to each and every one of your clients, you have been successful as a public defender. -- Jonathan Rapping, Training Director, Georgia Public Defender Standards Council Jekyll Island, an enchanting, historic location off the coast of Georgia, is a popular vacation spot in the summertime, though there’s not much happening during the winter. So who would spend a week there in the middle of January? Who would travel in caravans to a spot that is normally isolated this time of year while the temperatures hover in the thirties? If your answer is approximately two hundred public defenders, forty investigators, and thirty faculty members from four states and the District of Columbia, you would be right. After being on the job for all of two weeks, newly hired public defenders from all over Georgia descended on the tiny island for five full days of very intensive training. The training is an integral part of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council’s (GPDSC) mission to ensure that indigent people charged with crimes in Georgia receive first-rate representation. The Georgia Indigent Defense Act of 2003 established a statewide public defender system in Georgia that began operations January 1, 2005. The Act also created the GPDSC, an independent agency within the judicial branch of Georgia's state government. The Council is responsible for ensuring that the public defenders throughout the state of Georgia are properly trained, supported, and supervised. The Standards Council is committed to creating and maintaining the best public defender system in the United States. Additionally, the Council serves as the administrative support for the 49 circuit defender offices throughout the state. The Council assists the circuit defenders by providing training and professional development for the attorneys and other staff involved in defending indigent citizens; by representing the interests of defense attorneys throughout the state; and, by providing administrative assistance to the circuit defenders as needed. The New Attorney Training program opened with newly hired GPDSC Training Director Jonathan Rapping quoting Barbara Babcock, the first director of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS), by saying: “being a public defender requires a peculiar mindset, heart set, soul set.” From that point on, faculty member after faculty member began to explain to the people in the room exactly what that means. There were discussions about the importance of the public defender in ensuring justice for poor people charged with crimes and dialogue about the importance of treating the client with dignity and respect. These themes were promoted throughout sessions dealing with the theory of the case, investigation, discovery, motions practice, and pre-trial proceedings. These sessions made up the first training of a core curriculum that would be taught to all new public defenders in Georgia throughout the first year of operation. Panel discussions were provided by an impressive group of faculty members, including some of the most committed public defenders one could assemble. These large group sessions were coupled with breakout sessions in which small groups of lawyers worked through practical problems led by two faculty members per group. Lawyers spent eight hours a day in training sessions packed with soul searching, discussions of theory, and practical tips. Although everyone was tired by dinner time, young lawyers could be found by the dozens meeting each other, talking to faculty, and generally taking advantage of the community of which they now were a part in the hours after dinner. Numbers were exchanged with promises to continue these discussions long after the group left Jekyll Island. One of the circuit defenders, a former district attorney, said that he had been to many trainings put on by the prosecutors of the state. They generally lasted three days with a half-day of training each day. Lawyers brought their families and considered it an opportunity to take a vacation. He explained that if the prosecutors were put through training as intensive as this one they would revolt. Smiling, he remarked how special it was to watch lawyers happily participate in this type of training because of motivation to do good work. The impact of this training was not limited to the classroom. In the dining hall one could hear young lawyers buzzing about the commitment of the faculty. In the hallways participants discussed with excitement the energy in the air. However, it was also obvious that for many of the attorneys at the training, they were just coming to realize the magnitude of the responsibility they were taking on. Could they possibly live up to the standards the faculty was setting when they carried caseloads in the hundreds? Were there enough hours in the day to investigate cases, litigate discovery issues, research motions they contemplated filing, and meet with their client to keep each apprised of what was happening in their cases? Many were carrying caseloads well in excess of the standards set by the ABA. This is merely one example of many remnants of a broken system that the Georgia Indigent Defense Act of 2003 was designed to repair. However, these lawyers were beginning to realize that they are the architects who are tasked with fixing the Georgia public defense system. That will not happen overnight. There are obstacles facing these lawyers that will surely prevent them from living up to the standards set by the faculty in every case. However, they were told that if they can go home each night, look themselves in the mirror, and honestly say that they did everything they could to provide the kind of justice to each of their clients that they would demand for their loved ones, they are successful as public defenders. They were told that if each and every one of them held themselves to that standard, the quality of representation would begin to change for poor citizens of Georgia. There was an implicit deal struck that week: that the Council would provide these lawyers with the necessary training and support to do their job well if they agree to maintain the proper mindset, heart set, and soul set. It is not surprising that Mr. Rapping quoted the first director of PDS. PDS is nationally known for its intensive training program for new lawyers. It is widely admired for the standards it sets for its attorneys. It is also where Mr. Rapping learned to be a public defender. In fact, he was the training director of PDS when Michael Mears and Gary Parker, the director and deputy director of the Council respectively, and two of the forces behind the push for a statewide public defender system in Georgia, convinced him to join their mission in Georgia. The opportunity to join Mr. Parker and Mr. Mears in their efforts to create a model statewide public defender system in Georgia was enticing. The chance to take the training model that had proven so successful at PDS and adapt it to the much larger, statewide system in Georgia was one that he could not refuse. Based on what took place on Jekyll Island for five days in January, it seems as though their chances of success look promising. NLADA congratulates and commends GPDSC on this important mission. For more information on GPDSC, visit their website at www.gpdsc.com. DIP National Immigration Consequences TrainingJuly 14 to 15, 2005Essential for any defense practitioner representing non-citizens, this conference is specially designed to create state-specific charts that summarize key intersections between criminal and civil laws resulting in immigration consequences for alien defendants. Limited space available! Contact Maureen James with any questions at m.james@nlada.org. Cynthia Works is Director of Training, NLADA. c.works@nlada.org (202) 452-0620 x220 Funding TipsFederal FundingAccording to Federal Assistance Monitor, the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) plans to use some unspent funds from FY2004 to support new priorities in FY2005. Specifically of interest to defenders would be initiatives on Problem Solving Courts Discretionary Grants, “which support specialized courts (drug courts, family courts, domestic-violence courts and mental-health courts) designed to maximize treatment and successful re-entry strategies for offenders while protecting the community.” Other FY2005 initiatives being targeted by the BJA relate to law enforcement and other community programs. BJA funding notices are likely to be found online versus appearing in the Federal Register. Check the DoJ websites, specifically http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/BJA/. A resource for leads on all federal funding programs published by the General Services Administration is called the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance. This manual of more than 1,000 pages provides the most comprehensive information on federal funds, cross-indexed by agency, program type, applicant eligibility, and subject. The HTML “live system” is updated quite frequently, and the printable PDF version is updated less frequently. The Catalog can be found online at http://12.46.245.173/cfda/cfda.html. Private FundingThe Federal Assistance Monitor also highlights some private funding opportunities. Among the FY2005 priorities for The Public Welfare Foundation is $1.5 million for criminal justice initiatives, a $500,000 increase over last year’s budget. Priorities include “alternatives to incarceration, legal services for the poor and violence prevention.” Visit the Public Welfare Foundation online at http://www.publicwelfare.org/. For more information about Funding Tips, contact Jon Mosher, Resource Coordinator for Defender Legal Services, NLADA. (202) 452-0620 x213 j.mosher@nlada.org Resource TipsFor you discount fare travelers out there, a new website just came out of beta testing last week: Kayak.com. It is one of a new breed of websites that have popped up mostly because of Google’s influences; very simple design, but extremely content- and capability-heavy. Kayak searches close to 100 travel sites to find the cheapest flights for your travel locations and dates, and let’s you choose the vendor you want to buy your tickets from. This could mean the end to searching for travel options on Orbitz, then Expedia, then Travelocity, then Priceline… See for yourself: http://www.kayak.com/ |
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© Copyright, 2011
National Legal Aid & Defender Association,
1140 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 900, Washington, DC 20036
(Phone) 202.452.0620 | (Fax) 202.872.1031 |
info@nlada.org
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