Public Defenseless

Today, Hunter was joined by Danielle Harris, Managing Attorney of the Freedom Project at the San Francisco Public Defender Office. Thanks to mass incarceration policies like mandatory minimums and three strikes laws, thousands of people in California languish away serving brutally harsh sentences. Recognizing the cruelty, the state passed a series of laws aimed at giving people a pathway to early...

Today, Hunter was joined once again by Professor Justin Murray. This time, Justin and Hunter discussed Justin's newest law review article, Brady's Shadow. In the article, Justin lays out the landmark Supreme Court Case Brady v. Maryland has left criminal defendants with a deeply flawed access to exculpatory evidence.   Guest: Justin Murray, Professor of Law, New York Law School   Resources: Read t...

Today, Hunter was joined by two guests from the Brooklyn Defender Services, Heather Stoloff and Andie Markowitz. Unfortunately, today's conversation brings us another allegation of a public defender leader engaging in flagrant union busting efforts. A few months ago, the Executive Director of the organization called Andie in for a one on one meeting. In that meeting, Andie alleges that the Executi...

Today, Hunter was joined by the CJA Panel Rep for New Mexico, Ryan Villa. The last time Hunter talked about CJA panels on the show he discussed how the federal government stopped paying the panels back in July. After months of not getting paid, Ryan and the rest of the New Mexico panel decided that enough was enough. They wrote a letter stating they would no longer be accepting new cases. With the...

Today, Hunter was the President and Founder of #AfghanEvac, Shaw VanDiver. During our two decades of conflict in Afghanistan, America made a promise to hundreds of thousands of Afghans who helped our cause: work with us, and we will provide you safety from the Taliban. Yet when Kabul fell back into the hands of the Taliban, America left behind more than 195,000 of our allies in harms way. Shawn an...

Today, Hunter was joined by Calvin Duncan and Sophie Cull, Co-authors of the book, Jailhouse Lawyer . In this book, Sophie and Calvin tell the story of Calvin's life. As a teenager, Calvin was wrongfully charged with and ultimately convicted of a homicide. He faced a life sentence in Angola State Prison. For the nearly three decades that Calvin was wrongfully incarcerated, he worked as a jailhouse...

Today, Hunter was joined by Eric Seiferth and Nick Weldon of the New Orleans Historic Collection to discuss a historic exhibit they curated. The Captive State traces the story of mass incarceration to its historical roots to Louisiana's colonial slave holding past. Guest: Eric Seiferth, Curator/Historian, New Orleans Historic Collection Nick Weldon, Senior Editor, New Orleans Historic Collection R...

Today, Hunter was joined by two guest from the Detroit Justice Center, Nancy A. Parker and Rubina Mustafa. As they did on Tuesday, Hunter and his guests are exploring court related fines and fees, how fines and fees are impacting communities in Michigan, and the policies that have started the slow fight to eliminate court fines and fees.   Guest: Nancy A. Parker, Executive Director, Detroit Justic...

Today, Hunter was joined once again by journalist Katey Rausch. Last time Katey was on the show, she discussed her bombshell reporting on the non-disclosure agreements law enforcement was using to hide the misconduct of law enforcement officers. Now, Katey is here to describe how that reporting has turned into a ban on those agreements and a state wide data base to allow people to track law enforc...

Today, Hunter spoke with Joanna Weiss, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of the Fines and Fees Justice Center. Today, the two sat down to discuss FFJC's campaign to end court fines and fess the automatically revoke a person's driver's license nationally and in New Mexico   Guest: Joanna Weiss, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director, Fines and Fees Justice Center   Resources: FFJC https://finesand...

Today, Hunter spoke with David Bennett, a veteran in the field of pretrial services. They discuss the evolution of pretrial services, the challenges of jail overcrowding, and the misconceptions surrounding pretrial programs. David shares insights on the importance of community support, risk assessment, and the need for effective alternatives to electronic monitoring. The conversation highlights th...

Today, Hunter spoke with three amazing guests from Colorado's Office of Alternate Defense Counsel. Kristin Ladd, Blue Daniels, and Mesa Anderson joined the show to discuss the Greater Colorado Fellowship. This program aims to place lawyers in rural parts of the state to serve as private criminal defense lawyers who handle public defender cases.    Guest: Kristin Ladd, Attorney Development Coordina...

In this conversation, Hunter Parnell speaks with criminologist Emily about the unique challenges faced by justice-involved women. They discuss the importance of culturally competent tools and resources, the need for gender-specific risk assessment tools, and the impact of trauma and domestic violence on women's pathways to crime. Emily emphasizes the necessity of individualized approaches in the c...

Today, Hunter spoke with Natasha Dartigue, the Chief Public Defender of the Maryland Office of Public Defense. This time, Natasha and Hunter spoke about the workload crisis facing the state and a slate of new criminal legal policies that are pushing Maryland in a better direction.     Guest: Natasha Dartigue, Chief Public Defender, Maryland   Resources: Maryland Public Defender https://opd.state.m...

Today, Hunter was joined by the Southern Center for Human Right's Blake Feldman. Hunter and Blake walked through a handful of criminal legal policy changes that recently went into effect in Georgia. Unfortunately, the state continues it's tough on crime approach that may ultimately lead to more kids in adult court, more adults serving mandatory minimums, and the state further trying to incarcerate...

Today, Hunter was joined by three guests from Hennepin County's Adult Representation Services. As has been discussed multiple times on the show, many of the clients that walk into a public defender office have legal needs outside their criminal case. Whether it is in eviction court or family court, our clients often do not have access to counsel in these critical cases. ARS was created to fill the...

Today, Hunter was joined by Journalist Dan Hinkel to discuss his newest piece about the Conviction Integrity Unit in Cook County. While CIUs are an imperfect vessel to right the wrongs of a wrongful conviction, they still serve an essential function when they operate properly. The problem is since Eileen O'Neill Burketook over as the new State Attorney in Cook County the CIU hasn't exonerated a si...

Today, Hunter was joined once again by Carlos Martinez, Chief Public Defender in Miami Dade County. This time, Carlos joined to explain the tech innovations he implemented to get workloads under control, how immigration enforcement is impacting their practice, and the danger of the state pursuing more capital cases.   Guest: Carlos Martinez, Chief Public Defender, Miami-Dade County, Florida   Reso...

Today, Hunter was joined by several amazing public defenders from the Montana Public Defender System. Each one of them joins the show to talk about the truly transformative effects that workload limits have had on the system, what they hope to see continue to improve in the system, and how the work is finally sustainable because they have enforced workload standards.   Guest: Brett Schandelson, Ch...

Today, Hunter was joined once again by Andre de Gruy, Mississippi's State Public Defender. Andre joins the show this time to discuss a new pilot program that aims to provide rural communities full time public defenders. Andre hopes that this programs can be the start of Mississippi finally taking its obligations under Gideon seriously.   Guest: Andre de Gruy, The State Public Defender, Mississippi...

Today, Hunter was joined by Dean Jenny Roberts of Hofstra Law School. On today's episode, Hunter and Dean Roberts discuss a law review article that Dean Roberts published last year about how public defenders can/should respond to the progressive prosecutors.   Guest: Jenny Roberts, Dean, Hofstra Law   Resources: Contact Dean Roberts Here https://law.hofstra.edu/jenny-roberts/ Read the Article Here...

Today, Hunter was joined by Professor Joshua Clark Daivs to discuss his new book, Police Against the Movement . In the book, Professor Davis tells the often forgotten story of how police departments surveilled, infiltrated, and sabotaged civil rights movements that challenged the power of police.   Guest: Joshua Clark Davis, Professor of History, University of Baltimore   Resources: Professor Davi...

Today, Hunter was joined by Professor Shira Diner to discuss the Bar Advocate work stoppage in the state of Massachusetts. Back in May, the Bar Advocates, the private defense lawyers who handle 80% of Massachusetts's public defender workload, stopped taking new cases due to the incredibly low hourly rate they are paid. Since then, thousands of people have been left without representation as the co...

Today, Hunter was joined by Caneel Fraser and Tatyana Kaplan of California's Office of the State Public Defender. The three sat down to discuss an OSPD report, Unequal Scales, to explore how and why Public Defender's are so underfunded in comparison to prosecutors.   Guest: Caneel Fraser, Executive Director, Indigent Defense Improvement Division, California Office of the State Public Defender Taty...

Today, Hunter was joined once again by Alec Karatkatsanis. This time, Alec is here discussing Copaganda, cop fueled propaganda that shapes the way our society understands crime, the criminal legal system, and most importantly, convinces people that the only way to make our communities safer is by increasing our policing. In his new book, Copaganda , Alec explains how this propaganda is created, ho...