Public Defenseless

Today, Hunter was joined by John J. Lennon to discuss his new book, The Tragedy of True Crime: Four Guilty Men and the Stories that Define Us . John is a currently incarcerated journalist who presents the stories of four men, Michael Shane Hale, Robert Chambers, Milton Jones, and his own, in his book. Each of these men committed murder, but John sets out to tell a more complete picture to try and...

Today, Hunter was joined by Will Snowden of the Juror Project to discuss how they plan on revitalizing the jury around the country.     Guest: Will Snowden, Director, The Juror Project   Resources: The Juror Project https://www.thejurorproject.org/ https://www.thejurorproject.org/contact https://www.instagram.com/jurorproject/?hl=en https://www.facebook.com/jurorproject/     Contact Hunter Parnell...

Today, Hunter was joined once again by Vichal Kumar of Partners for Justice. This time, Vichal joins the show to discuss a new toolkit that Partners for Justice has put together to give Public Defenders resources to up incorporate collaborative Public Defender practices.   Guest: Vichal Kumar, Managing Director for Capacity Building, Partners for Justice   Resources: Access the Toolkit Here https:...

Today, Hunter was joined by Michael Rempel and Anna Stenkamp of the Data Collaborative for Justice. They discuss a recent report authored by DCJ about the impacts, or lack thereof, that came from the changes to New York's discovery laws.   *** Correction to the show. The Data Collaborative caught an error in the underlying data related to case processing times in NYC. " Due to an error found in th...

Today, Hunter was joined by activist, prisoner journalist, and author of Ending Isolation , Christopher Blackwell. On this episode, Chris and Hunter discuss the book, the horrors of solitary confinement, and why the practice needs to end.   Guest: Christopher Blackwell, activist, prisoner journalist, and author of Ending Isolation, and executive director of Look 2 Justice   Resources: Christopher...

Today, Hunter was once again joined by Chesa Boudin and Eric Fish to discuss a law review article they recently published. This time, they are talking about Public Defenders and the Separation of Powers. While this seems like a law school paper for law school professors, the fundamental question posed by this episode is how Public Defenders can/should increase their political capacity to act as a...

Today, Hunter hosted a debate between Professor John Gross and Professor Bob Boruchowitz about the Public Defender National Workload Standards. Back in the spring of this year, John penned an article about some of the methodological and pragmatic issues with the National Workload study. Meanwhile, Bob has been working in Washington for decades to bring meaningful, enforceable workload standards ac...

Today, Hunter hosted a debate between Professor John Gross and Professor Bob Boruchowitz about the Public Defender National Workload Standards. Back in the spring of this year, John penned an article about some of the methodological and pragmatic issues with the National Workload study. Meanwhile, Bob has been working in Washington for decades to bring meaningful, enforceable workload standards ac...

Today, Hunter was joined once again by Sharone Mitchell Jr. and Sharlyn Grace of the Cook County Public Defender Office. As we have already seen in Los Angeles and D.C., President Trump is threatening to deploy the national guard to Chicago to combat "crime." Today, Sharone and Sharlyn joined the show to discuss what is actually happening on the ground in Chicago, what the city needs to continue i...

Today, Hunter was joined once again by Professor Eve Primus. This time, Eve joined the show to discuss her newest law review article "Burdens of Proof in Criminal Procedure." At first glance, this might seem like a boring, technical legal topic, but the burden of proof is often the only thing that matters in a criminal trial. As Eve points out, the entire case can hinge on who has to prove what an...

Today, Hunter was joined by Professor Amanda Savage to discuss her latest law review article "The Pseudoscience of Gun Hunting".   In the article, Amanda explains the cop created "Characteristics of an Armed Person" training that cops undergo to identify who may or may not have a weapon. As with many cop created "sciences," CAP is the perfect tool for police to use if they want to stop, search, an...

Today, Hunter was Renae Alt-Summers and Mekka Jeffers-Nelson to discuss the payment stoppage for Criminal Justice Act Panel Attorneys. Just like state public defender systems, the federal public defender system relies on private defense counsel to take conflict cases and serve as the primary way to deliver public defender services. Yet as of the start of July, those CJA panel attorneys have had pa...

Today, Hunter was joined once again by Grant Miller, Salt Lake City Public Defender and Representative of Utah's 24 th House District. Last time that he was on the show, Grant was running for office. Now, Grant joins to discuss how his first legislative session went. From passing a bill to reduce fines and fees to helping ensure the Overton window didn't shift too far to tough on crime side, Grant...

Today, Hunter was joined by Crystal Leff-Piñon, Director of TIDC's family protection representation unit. On Tuesday, Hunter and Scott Ehlers discussed the funding problem and attorney shortages leading to a slow moving crisis in rural Texas. Today, Crystal joins to share how similar the issues are for family defense throughout the state of Texas.   Guest: Crystal Leff-Piñon, Director, Family Prot...

Today, Hunter was joined once again the Texas Indigent Defense Commission Executive Director, Scott Ehlers. This time, Scott and Hunter explore a slow moving crisis in Texas Public Defense: an absolute lack of attorneys in rural parts of the state. As with so many states with large rural areas, attorneys are retiring faster than they can be replaced. Scott and his team at TIDC tried to get more fu...

Today, Hunter was joined once again by the Executive Director of North Dakota's Commission of Legal Counsel for the Indigent, Travis Fink. Last time, Travis joined the show to detail a bleak outlook for public defense in the state. Not enough attorneys in both the contract and full-time systems, inadequate pay, and crushing workloads left Travis with little choice. He drafted up a letter preparing...

Today, Hunter was joined once again by New Mexico's Chief Public Defender, Ben Baur. A few years back, a workload study estimated that New Mexico had 1/3 of the public defenders it needed to meet its workload demands. At that time, the state set out on a five-year plan to address the staffing shortage. Unfortunately, the state has not stuck to the five-year plan. Now, with a shortage of attorneys...

Today, Hunter was joined by Dennis Calhoun, Tim Ray Johnson, and Amanda Ulrich to discuss how Washington is helping people who were found not guilty by reason of insanity.   Guest: Tim Ray Johnson, Criminal Defense Lawyer, Washington Dennis Calhoun, Student, Washington Amanda Ulrich, Public Defender Washington   Resources: WA PD https://opd.wa.gov/ NGRI https://opd.wa.gov/forensic-civil-commitment...

Today, Hunter was joined by Nat Jacob, Elizabeth Mustin, and Rachel Cortez to discuss new efforts by the Washington to recruit and retain Public Defenders.   Guest Nat Jacob, Recruitment and Retention Managing Attorney Western Washington, Washington Office of Public Defense Rachel Cortez, Recruitment and Retention Managing Attorney Eastern Washington, Washington Office of Public Defense Elizabeth...

Today, Hunter was joined by federal public defender Amanda Bass Castro Alves to discuss the wrongful conviction of Tremane Wood. In 2004, Tremane was convicted of felony murder and sentenced to death in the State of Oklahoma. Just after that, his brother, who admitted to pulling the trigger and who stated Tremane was not responsible for the death, was given a life sentence just after Tremane's tri...

Today, Hunter was joined once again by Erica Nichols Cook, the head of the Iowa State Public Defender Wrongful Conviction Unit. On today's episode, Erica walks us through the case of Jerry Mark. In 1976, he was convicted of the murder of his brother, sister-in-law and their two children, but as you will hear, all the evidence points to the fact that Jerry Mark wasn't even in the state when the mur...

Today, Hunter was joined by Professor Megan Walsh and Anthony Benz from the University of Minnesota. As we did on Tuesday, Hunter sat down with these two to highlight the work of a law school clinic. This clinic focuses on combating gun violence through both offensive and defensive litigation.     Guest Megan Walsh, Director, Gun Violence Prevention Clinic, University of Minnesota Anthon Benz, Stu...

Today, Hunter was joined by Professor Megan Graham to discuss how her law an technology clinic is helping Public Defenders deal with technology issues in their client's cases.   Guest Megan Graham, Associate Clinical Professor of Law, Director of Technology Law Clinic, University of Iowa College of Law   Resources: Contact Megan https://law.uiowa.edu/people/megan-graham https://bsky.app/profile/me...

Today, Hunter was joined by Co-Founders and Co-Executive Directors of Unchained Emily Napier-Singletary and Derek Singletary. Unchained is a non-profit organization based out of New York that seeks to "empower those currently and formerly incarcerated in the state of New York through policy development, community organizing and advocacy, research, and liberation education." On today's episode, Der...

Today, Hunter was joined by investigative journalist Anat Rubin to discuss her recent reporting on Public Defender Investigators in California. At times, investigators are the single most important person in a criminal defense case, and yet around the country, nearly all public defenders do not have access to necessary investigative resources. Today, Anat joins the show to discuss how the systemic...