Public Defender News 

Ohio public defender launches new non-DNA innocence initiative

(The Plain Dealer © 11/19/2009)

Ohio's top public Defender is taking on a rare challenge:  accepting cases of convicted criminals who say they're innocent but don't have the DNA to prove it.

(The Columbus Dispatch © 11/15/2009)

When her father went to prison nearly 10 years ago, Amberley Tapp was a precocious girl of 7 with hair of golden ringlets and a sunny disposition living in a nice home in Delaware, Ohio.

Ohio Ethics Commission Advisory Opinion

The Ohio Ethics Commission has released a written advisory opinion that a member of a county public defender commission is generally prohibited from acting as appointed counsel to criminal defendants in the same county.

Prisons are punitive for Ohio taxpayers

(The Plain Dealer © 9/18/2009)

Last year, America passed a dubious threshold. The Pew Center on the States reported that 1 in every 100 adults in the United States are in jail or prison.

Ohio blocking youth prisons investigator

(The Vindicator © 9/22/2009)

A lawyer representing juvenile offenders says the state is hindering the work of court-ordered investigators of Ohio’s juvenile prisons.

Autistic teen won't be tried in mom's death

(The Columbus Dispatch © 9/15/2009)

A judge ruled yesterday that an autistic teenager is not competent to stand trial in the fatal beating of his mother and should remain in the treatment facility where he has been living for several months.

Mentally Ill Offenders Strain Juvenile System

(The New York Times © 8/9/2009)

The teenager in the padded smock sat in his solitary confinement cell here in this state’s most secure juvenile prison and screamed obscenities.

Is It Now a Crime to Be Poor?

(The New York Times © 8/8/2009)

IT’S too bad so many people are falling into poverty at a time when it’s almost illegal to be poor.

DOJ Announces Commitment to Public Defenders, Legal Aid

(The Blog of Legal Times © 6/24/2009)

Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. today outlined a plan in which the Department of Justice seeks to expand its commitment to improving legal services for indigent criminal defendants.

Even Now, There’s Risk in ‘Driving While Black’

(The New York Times © 6/14/2009)

The experience of being mistaken for a criminal is almost a rite of passage for African-American men.

Drugs Won the War

(The New York Times © 6/13/2009)

This year marks the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s start of the war on drugs, and it now appears that drugs have won.

Shackling may be limited in Fla. juvenile courts

(The Gainesville Sun © 6/4/2009)

State Supreme Court justices said they were appalled by the routine handcuffing, shackling and chaining of juveniles in Florida's courts during oral argument Thursday over a proposal to ban the blanket use of such restraints.

Summit courts in deficit

(Ohio.com © 6/3/2009)

Fees paid to attorneys and expert witnesses for indigent Summit County defendants have exceeded the court system's budget by $249,000 already this year.

Nationwide, public defender offices are in crisis

(Associated Press © 6/3/2009)

It wasn't the brightest decision she'd ever made. She admits that. But if she'd had enough money to hire a lawyer she might not have lost six months of her life.

Finally, some hope for saner approach to deciding whom we send to prison

(Canton Repository © 6/1/2009)

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, we have 2.2 million Americans behind bars, and one in every 31 U.S. adults — 7.3 million Americans — is in prison, on parole or on probation. This is costing us $60 billion-plus a year.

That's What Real Policemen Do; They Stand Up for Each Other

(The Huffington Post © 5/25/2009

Thus spake, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, a city cop who joined other police officers and DEA agents in a packed federal courtroom last week.

Lawmakers should end delay in cutting high costs of overcrowded prisons

(The Columbus Dispatch © 4/23/2009)

Ohio prisons are dangerously crowded, at 132 percent of capacity, and they consume an ever-growing part of the state budget.

Report Calls Out Flaws In Public Defense System

(NPR © 4/15/2009)

The American legal system guarantees "equal justice under law." Those words, carved in stone on the facade of the Supreme Court, are a constitutional promise that everyone will have the same opportunity for justice.

Time to Try 'Smart on Crime'

(City Beat © 3/25/2009)

“Three strikes and your out," life sentences with parole and other "tough on crime” policies have led to the United States having the largest prison population in the world.

A Key Legal Right at Risk

(The Washington Post © 3/10/2009)

More than 45 years ago, as attorney general of Minnesota, I joined with the attorneys general of 21 states in asking the Supreme Court to ensure that counsel would be appointed for all people facing criminal charges who could not afford it.

Prison Spending Outpaces All but Medicaid

(The New York Times © 3/2/2009)

One in every 31 adults, or 7.3 million Americans, is in prison, on parole or probation, at a cost to the states of $47 billion in 2008, according to a new study.

Seitz offers plan for prison reform

(Cincinnati Enquirer © 2/16/2009)

State Sen. Bill Seitz says sweeping prison reform is the only way to reduce overcrowding and ease strain on Ohio's incarceration budget.

Science Found Wanting in Nation’s Crime Labs

(The New York Times © 2/4/2009)

Forensic evidence that has helped convict thousands of defendants for nearly a century is often the product of shoddy scientific practices that should be upgraded and standardized, according to accounts of a draft report by the nation’s pre-eminent scientific research group.

Strickland warns of 2011 prison closing

(The Dayton Daily News © 2/2/2009)

Gov. Ted Strickland warned he might close one of the state's 32 prisons in 2011 unless the state prison population is reduced.

Supreme Court Eases Limits on Evidence

(The New York Times © 1/14/2009)

The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that evidence obtained from an unlawful arrest based on careless record keeping by the police may be used against a criminal defendant.

Defense lawyers: Bar none

(The News-Herald © 12/31/2008)

In this day of definite budget cuts probably affecting the die-hard, tax-paid Public Defenders Office and the non-profit Legal Aid Society staff in Lake, Geauga or Cuyahoga counties, who will defend the monetarily defenseless in court?

Lecture series to honor former public defender

(The Columbus Dispatch © 12/14/2008)

Not everyone who tangled with David H. Bodiker liked what he had to say. But even after going a few rounds, prosecutors and opposing attorneys came away respecting Ohio's bulldog public defender.

Home for the holidays, after 18 years

(The Lantern © 12/04/2008)

After 18 years served in prison for a crime he did not commit, Columbus native Robert McClendon is home for the holidays.

Caseload increases for public defenders

(The Star Beacon © 12/02/2008)

JEFFERSON — The Ashtabula County Public Defender Office has seen a notable increase in its caseload over the past two years, prompting the need for additional operational funds for 2008.

Public defenders moonlight to pay off school debt

(Minnesota Public Radio © 11/09/2008)

In Corey Sherman's second year of law school she tagged along with an attorney to visit a client in a county jail.

Citing Workload, Public Lawyers Reject New Cases

(The New York Times © 11/08/2008)

Public defenders’ offices in at least seven states are refusing to take on new cases or have sued to limit them, citing overwhelming workloads that they say undermine the constitutional right to counsel for the poor.

In Cuyahoga County, you're much more likely to get a plea deal if you're white

(The Plain Dealer © 10/19/2008)

Why did Kevin McFaul, white and the son of the county sheriff, get off with a misdemeanor conviction last year in his cocaine-possession case -- potentially preserving his law license -- while Mercia Cherry, a black resident of Cleveland's East Side, had to take a felony in hers?

Sentences often unjust, unnecessary

(The Blade © 10/12/2008)

I laud the Blade's Sept. 29 editorial questioning the utility of mandatory minimum sentences and noting growing public awareness that such sentences are often unjust and unnecessary.

Juvenile Court takes part in pilot program

(The News Herald © 10/9/2008)

The Lake County Juvenile Court is one of five juvenile courts in the state to have participated in an Ohio Supreme Court pilot project designed to improve “Standards of Practice” for juvenile attorneys.

Evidence that cleared man sent to FBI's database

(The Columbus Dispatch © 10/5/2008)

When the young mother answered a knock at the door in the middle of the night, a man put a knife to her throat, forced his way inside and raped her while her 2-year-old son slept in the next room.

Antisocial Behavior May Be Caused By Low Stress Hormone Levels

(Science Daily © 10/5/2008)

A link between reduced levels of the 'stress hormone' cortisol and antisocial behavior in male adolescents has been discovered by a research team at the University of Cambridge.

Man wants probe of killings reopened

(The Columbus Dispatch © 10/4/2008)

The state crime lab has found DNA from an unknown person on the shotgun at the scene of the 1994 killings of Lois and Charles Caulley of Grove City.

Specific Gene Found In Adolescent Men With Delinquent Peers

(Science Daily © 10/2/2008)

Birds of a feather flock together, according to the old adage, and adolescent males who possess a certain type of variation in a specific gene are more likely to flock to delinquent peers, according to a landmark study led by Florida State University criminologist Kevin M. Beaver.

Cash-Strapped Maryland Public Defender Office Ends Contracts With Private Attorneys

(The National Law Journal © 9/30/2008)

The Maryland Office of Public Defender recently announced it will no longer contract with private attorneys to handle an estimated 10,000 cases annually in which it has conflicts because the office has no money to pay them.

Excessive Defender Caseloads Deprive Citizens of Competent Representation

(NACDL© 8/28/2008)

Washington, DC­ (August 28, 2008) -- The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), through its indigent defense project, is concerned about the crisis in indigent defense, in Florida and nationwide. NACDL agrees with the Miami-Dade, FL, circuit court’s assessment that “the caseload of the felony public defenders in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit . . . far exceeds any recognized standard for the maximum number of felony cases a criminal defense attorney should handle annually.”