Public Defenseless

Every minute of the full conversation with Andrea Lyon is available to listen to, but Hunter wanted to make sure everyone had an easy time accessing the last 30 minutes of the conversation where the discuss a potential Office of the Defender General at the Federal Level!   Guests:   Andrea Lyon, Capital Defense Attorney, Former Capital Public Defender, Author, Educator, and Former Dean of Valparai...

Dubbed by the Chicago Tribune as "The Angel of Death Row", Andrea Lyon is one of the most successful Capital Case Public Defenders in the country, but she is so much more than that. As an author, educator, former law school dean, and advocate for criminal justice reform, there is next to nothing that Andrea has not done in her career.   On today's episode, Hunter and Andrea discuss her experience...

In this episode, I speak with three inspiring individuals: Michelle Sages, a Lead Deputy State Public Defender of the Denver Trial Office, Travis Weiner, a Deputy State Public Defender of the Greeley Regional Office, and James Hardy, a Lead Deputy Public Defender in the Appellate Division of the Colorado State Public Defender.    Together, they speak on The Defender's Union of Colorado and why it'...

The Oregon Public Defender System is broken. Due to a shortage of attorneys willing to take on the cases, hundreds of people wait for months without ever having an attorney appointed to their case. During this wait, they are often required to return to court to mandate another hearing because attorneys are not available to take the case. With each passing day, evidence grows harder to find, the me...

What is the true impact of fines and fees?   In this episode, I speak with two inspiring individuals—Adam Danneman, the Chief Public Defender of Jefferson County, Alabama, and Leah Nelson, the Research Director of Alabama Appleseed. They bring with them two unique perspectives and a boatload of passion for public defense.   Alabama does not have a universal indigent defense system and there is no...

When people discuss the criminal legal system, you may often hear someone say, "the system is not broken. It is acting exactly was it was designed." On today's episode, Hunter and guest Ray Keith discuss the ways in which the legal system in Texas is designed to kill people.   As the head of the Regional Public Defenders for Capital Cases in Texas, Ray is intimately familiar with the statutory lan...

Today, Hunter sat down with Marea Beeman, Director of Research Initiatives for Defender Legal Services at the National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA), to discuss their recent report, "At What Cost? Findings from an Examination into the Imposition of Public Defense System Fees.   If you ask the average person what the word "free" means, they will likely tell you it means whatever is con...

Today Hunter had the distinct pleasure of speaking with Nate Wade and Katie Gipson-McLean, two public defenders from the Arizona. Of all the episodes, this may be the one that makes you the most pissed off.   From the outset, Katie and Nate drop story after story that reveals the deeply regressive and reactionary structure sustaining the status quo of mass incarceration in Arizona. From the powerf...

Today, Hunter revisited Public Defense in the state of Missouri with a conversation with Mary Fox. Mary is the Director of the Missouri State Public Defender system, and this conversation picks up where Hunter's conversation with ACLU attorney, Anthony Rothert left off.   Back in March, Hunter and Anthony discussed the history of Public Defense in Missouri and why the ACLU brought sued the state f...

Today, Hunter sat down with Nick Barber, author of a recent piece in the magazine In These Times called "In Small-Town Georgia, A Broken Taillight Can Lead to Spiraling Debt". In his investigation and writing, Nick uncovered a corrupt private probation system that keeps people under control of the state for years in what appears to be an effort to generate revenue for Clayton, Georgia and for the...

Today, Hunter spoke with Sharone Mitchell Jr., Chief Public Defender in Cook County about a few extremely timely topics: Guns and Bail Reform.   Born and raised in Chicago, Sharone understands the needs of his community and you can easily see how his experience helps to inform the way he pushes for and speaks about reform in Cook County. At the center of those pushes are tackling the issue of gun...

Today, Hunter sat down with Lori James-Townes, Executive Director of the largest Public Defense Association in the country, the National Association of Public Defense. After conversations with Jeff Sherr, Heather Hall, and countless other members of NAPD, listeners will likely be familiar with the organization, but Hunter wanted to speak with Lori to highlight a specific aspect of the association...

Today, Hunter sat down with Carlos Martinez, the Chief Defender in the Miami Public Defender Office. With more than 30 years of experience as a Public Defender in Miami, Carlos Martinez has seen a little bit of everything in the office, but his experience extends past the court room. As a native son of Miami, Carlos relies on his personal experiences to help shape his offices outreach into the com...

If you believed the many legal dramas in TV reflected actual court proceedings, you would be under the impression that our legal system is driven by the battle of wits between two lawyers at trial. If, however, you examine how our legal system operates, you would see that long ago our system became one where trials are rare. Instead, it is the plea bargain sitting at the bedrock of our legal syste...

Justin Heim - Staff Development Program Specialist (Training Division), Wisconsin State Public Defender - joins this episode to breaks down what a social worker really is and helps us define their role in the legal system. Trauma is something that is not only affecting the community but the agents working to help as well. Justin believes a renaissance is beginning as our culture accepts that emoti...

There are only so many victories that can happen for Public Defense in a court room. Of course, we should the goal should be zealous advocacy and the best outcome for each client, but a single victory in a single case is not enough to stem the tide of Mass Incarceration. Real victories for the accused come at the policy level, and that is what this week's conversation is all about. Joining Hunter...

Jenny Andrews is the Director of Training for California's Indigent Defense Improvement Division. She's here today to teach you what public defense is truly like from the defender's side.   Public defenders are often trapped between a rock and a hard place because they want to provide equal representation access, yet are expected to work too many hours for not enough pay. Because of this, "martyr...

This Week, Hunter spoke with the awesome and powerful, Brendon Woods. As Chief Public Defender in Alameda County, Brendon is one of the loudest and strongest advocates for criminal justice reform in the entire country. On this episode, Brendon and Hunter discuss how Brendon was able to cultivate the culture both in and out of his office that enabled wide sweeping success at crafting meaningful ref...

38 : Michigan Public Defense w/ Kristen Staley   Ready for a refreshing dose of positivity?   In this episode, Hunter speaks with Kristen Staley, the Executive Director of the Michigan Indigent Defense.   Kristen maps out the complexities of a committee system, sharing the unique challenges and benefits that having individual offices hold. It turns out that the quality of services varies from coun...

This week, Hunter spoke with Jeff Sherr and Heather Hall of the National Association of Public Defense to discuss the importance of training the next generation of Public Defense Leaders. Over their careers, Jeff and Heather have seen first hand the transformation in the types of people drawn to Public Defense. This evolution from warriors in the court room to advocates in the policy realm has onl...

Kentucky is known to have a strong and well-structured public defender system, but it is held back by poor funding and an unresponsive legislative body.   This week, Hunter speaks with Ernie Lewis, the former Public Advocate of Kentucky and former Executive Director of the National Association for Public Defense (NAPD).   They discuss Ernie's work in public defense reform and the best ways to get...

    This week, Hunter sat down with Jane Fox and Kyle Morris to discuss one of the pressing issues facing millions of Americans: Student Loans.       As of today, there is roughly $1.75 trillion in student loans that remain outstanding. For many, these debts will carry with them until they hit retirement age. This is a debt that cannot be discharged via bankruptcy and the high interest rates make...

Sara Mayeux is a law professor at Vanderbilt University and the author of the book Free Justice, A History of the Public Defender in 20th Century America.    Sara discusses the progressive era, the 1950s and the development of public defense of modern America, and the supreme court's role throughout it all.    The development of public defense has largely been dictated by the growth of the nation...

The Massachusetts public defense system presents arguably the best example of how contract public defense could work, largely in part to today's guest—Anthony Benedetti, Chief Public Defender of Massachusetts.    Their system is made up of approximately 80% contract attorneys, and in this episode, Anthony walks us through how he helps to oversee these attorneys and ensures a quality level of repre...

Franny Forsman has been working in Nevada indigent defense for several decades, and today she brings her impressive breadth of experience to the show!    Franny is a former Post Conviction Indigent Defense Counsel in Nevada who has worked long and hard to improve the system.   Today, she speaks with us about how the ACLU lawsuit has brought drastic changes to the state of Nevada and why there are...