john.stuart

John Stuart has worked as a public defender in Minnesota since 1978. For the last 24 years, as State Public Defender, he has supervised a developing statewide system that provides adult and juvenile court defense services to all 87 counties, employing 500 lawyers—full and part-time–and 200 support staff in 32 offices. John served 7 years as Co-Chair of the American Council of Chief Defenders, and for 5 years on the faculty of the National Defender Leadership Institute. He has trained public defenders in 15 states and in Eastern Europe. In Minnesota, he is a member of the Drug Court Initiative, the Juvenile Justice Coalition, the Racial Fairness Subcommittee of the Supreme Court Equal Justice Committee, and the Sentencing Guidelines Commission. He has taught as an adjunct at the University of Minnesota Law School and the William Mitchell College of Law. He is co-author of Felony Sentencing in Minnesota (Butterworth, 1985), and several articles on sentencing policy and juvenile justice.