Public Defenseless

On today's show, Hunter sat down with Cameron Blazer, the Circuit Public Defender in Charleston, South Carolina, to discuss the past, present, and future of Public Defense in the state. From the start of the show, Hunter has long wanted to discuss with more detail the South Carolina practice of non-attorneys serving as judges, but there is so much more to this episode than that. In an unusual turn...

It's no secret that the Public Defenseless Podcast firmly stands in the "abolish cash bail" camp. On today's episode, Hunter is joined by criminal defense attorney, Katie Yens, to demonstrate yet another reason why the practice must cease to exist. Despite, perhaps, good intentions of judges and prosecutors, the bond laws in Colorado allow for the bail bond industry to enrich themselves off the ba...

A little over a year ago, Hunter spoke with Rocky Ramirez about how a simple bit of no-code programming was able to cut down appointment times from nearly a week to less than half a day. Today, Hunter invited Rocky back on the show to discuss the steps he's taken over the past year in Bexar County to find tech solutions for the many issues with Public Defense. While the Managed Assigned Counsel sy...

Today, Hunter spoke with Randy Fiedler and Stacy Newman about the best ways to handle a challenging client. Whether it is due to mental illness, mistrust, or some other external factor, every public defender has at one point in time dealt with a client they would consider challenging. The question is then, what are the skills and best practices to foster the trusting relationship that is necessary...

Today, Hunter spoke with Patrick Crowley, Michael Naughton and Jonathan Sacks to talk through the attorney shortage crisis in rural America and what we can do to reverse the trend. While today's episode focuses a lot on what is happening in rural Michigan, make no mistake, this is a problem facing nearly every state in the country. As rural, small town America has declined over the past decades, i...

Today, Hunter spoke with Chris "Champ" Napier. When Champ was only four years old when he witnessed his father's murder. By the time he was thirteen, Napier had lived in seven different homes in seven different ghettos. Biologically and socially, he was raised in a pool of piranhas, barbarians, and sharks. At eighteen, Napier was convicted of killing a man and was sent to prison. This memoir narra...

Today, Hunter spoke with Latosha Watts and Taneal Behrens to highlight the important role that paralegals and social workers play in a Public Defender Office. To date, we have touched a lot on the need for Public Defender Offices to incorporate more social workers, but we have not had the opportunity to talk about the important role paralegals provide an office. With more than 2 decades of experie...

Today, Hunter spoke with two law professors, Kay Levine and Russell Gold, to discuss their law review article calling for an increase in the public advocacy of public defenders. As a natural extension of the main goals of the show, Hunter loved exploring the potential political power public defenders could wield if they were more vocal. Interestingly as well, both Kay and Russell offered important...

Today, Hunter spoke with Law Professor Corinna Lain to discuss her career of research around the death penalty and lethal injection. While it may seem strange to hyper focus on lethal injection, there is something to be said about understanding how and why lethal injection became the defacto method for state sanctioned murder. When lethal injection was offered to the American people, it was design...

Last year, Hunter spoke with Oregon Public Defender Chris O'Connor to discuss the public defender crisis in Oregon, and today, Hunter once again returns to Oregon to see what has changed. Joining Hunter to discuss the issue is Eve Costello, a contract PD in Klamath Falls, and Lee Wachocki, a PD in Multnomah County. Each of these attorneys bring with them an insight into the many ways that Public D...

On previous episodes, Hunter spoke with Chris Fabricant and Daniel Medwed to discuss various aspects of the innocence movement. With Chris, they discussed the type of junk science that contributes to wrongful convictions. With Daniel, the discussed the unnecessary legal processes and hurdles that stand in the way of getting people out of prison once they are there. Today, Hunter sat down with anot...

Today, we return to once again to the state of Alabama to speak with Stacey Fuller and Kathleen Henderson. If you will recall, Stacey joined Hunter in his conversation with Leah Nelson to discuss the fines and fees that keep Alabamans from accessing a meaningful second chance. At the end of that episode, Stacey mentioned the Felony ID card the state required her always have on her. That conversati...

On last week's show, Hunter spoke with Babatunde Aremu and demonstrated the ways in which a Public Defender Office could be unionized without causing strife between leadership and line public defenders. Unfortunately today's episode demonstrates the worst possible scenario for a unionization effort. Hunter sat down with Cat Vining and Morgan King, line public defenders in the Louisville Metro Publ...

On today's bonus show, Hunter provides updates on the plans for the show and what he learned from his internship at the Aurora Municipal Public Defender Office.   Contact Hunter Parnell: Publicdefenseless@gmail.com   Instagram @PublicDefenselessPodcast Twitter                                                                  @PDefenselessPod www.publicdefenseless.com   Subscribe to the Patreon www....

Today, Hunter spoke with Jill Weinberg, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Tufts University, to discuss the difficulties and strategies of discussing BDSM and other alternative sexual practices in the court room. For many, 50 Shades of Grey is the only exposure to alternative sexual practices so how should lawyers prepare juries, judges, and even themselves for when their case revolves around one...

When most in the Public Defender world think about the Bronx Defenders, they think of an office at the forefront of imagining a new path forward for Public Defense. Despite this, the Bronx Defenders sat as outlier amongst the New York City Public Defender Offices as one of the last who were not unionized. Today, Hunter spoke with Babatunde Aremu, President of the new Bronx Defenders Union, to disc...

Today, Hunter sat down with Mary Ann Scali (Executive Director, Gault Center) and HyeJi (Senior Youth Defense Counsel, Gault Center), to discuss the legacy of the Supreme Court Case in re Gault and how it impacts youth representation today. Much like the episode with Justine Olderman and Wes Caines on the legacy of Gideon , today's episode is a reflection on America's history of neglecting the rig...

Today, Hunter was joined once again by Jane Fox (Legal Aid Society New York) and Kyle Morris (Nashville Public Defender Office) to discuss all things student debt forgiveness. Last time they were on the show, Jane and Kyle walked Hunter through the complicated landscape of Public Service Loan Forgiveness, President Biden's student loan forgiveness plan, and several other topics of interest. Since...

Today, Hunter spoke with Elbert Aull, a Public Defender from King County Washington and chairman of the Public Defender Union's Political Action Committee to discuss the vital role the union played in bringing attention to the horrid conditions of jails in King County. As with many of our unionization episodes, this episode highlights the type of political and media engagement that are not normall...

Across the country, a movement of so called progressive prosecutors has become a focal point of political commentary around the criminal legal system. Today, Hunter spoke with three Chief Public Defenders, Mano Raju, Keisha Hudson, and Ricardo Garcia to discuss their observations and perspectives dealing with these progressive prosecutors. For each of the guests and Hunter, there is a universal ag...

Today, Hunter spoke with James McDermott and Paul Chambers, two Public Defenders from the Far West Texas Office, to discuss their vision for a better model for Public Defense Delivery. According to the ABA and basically every Public Defender organization, vertical representation is what all offices should strive for. Under this model, attorneys handle every aspect of the case from first appearance...

Today, Hunter sat down with Alexandra Pray, Deputy Public Defender in San Francisco and Board Member of the Public Defender Union, to discuss the unique arrangement the City Attorneys, Prosecutors, and Public Defenders have in SF. When we've discussed Public Defense Unions, we ordinarily hear about coalitions of Public Defenders and sometimes all staff members coming together to advocate for bette...

Today, Hunter spoke with Diego Alcala, a criminal defense attorney in Puerto Rico, to better understand the challenges the island faces in the criminal legal system. From years of experience as a criminal defense attorney in Puerto Rico and other parts of the United States, Diego cuts through the complicated legal layers to get at a core issue plaguing Puerto Rico: For more than a century, the isl...

"Well I grew up poor and I didn't go off committing crimes!" Arguably, this is the most common response those that work in the field of mitigation hear when they are trying to explain what mitigation is. To tackle this question and discuss take another look at the importance of non-capital mitigation, Hunter spoke with Victoria Rusk. She is a mitigation expert, author, and founder of Mitigation Un...

If you spend anytime watching news in the past 3 years, you have likely heard about San Francisco. Normally, that conversation revolves around the state of public safety in the city, and often, it is presented from the perspective of progressive prosecution. Today, Hunter had on Mano Raju, Chief Public Defender of the San Francisco, to give a different perspective on the path forward for public sa...