Christi Comes Home After 25 Years in Prison

Cheers and tears erupted as Christi Cheramie walked out of the prison gates this morning to a waiting crowd of family and friends. Christi, who has spent exactly 25 years behind bars, is free for the first time in her […]

At the Hands of Police

Editor’s note: Following the murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald by police officer Jason VanDyke, many in Chicago have pushed for criminal justice reform. Amy Campanelli, the Public Defender of Cook County, Illinois, is a strong advocate for reform of Chicago’s police department and courts. […]

Judicial Abuse of Public Defenders

Public Defenders have been doing a good job of bringing attention to the horrible things that happen to our clients. I want to talk a bit about some of the horrible things that happen to us, as public defenders, because […]

New York Deserves Acknowledgment in Workloads Reform

Dear County and City partners and public defense colleagues:    Recently (January 31 online, February 3 in print) the New York Times published a dramatic story about the national crisis of excessive public defense caseloads, entitled “One Lawyer, 194 Felony […]

Opportunity to Help Clients

If you are looking for a simple way to help public defenders succeed for clients, take a look at The NAPD Fund for Justice. https://fundforjustice.org/ The NAPD Fund for Justice enhances the right to counsel and public defense in the […]

Electrifying Results of Defenders Uniting

Events in New York City this past week have shown the power public defenders wield when they work together and partner with local communities. Within days of each other, defenders united twice. They alerted the nation to the plight of […]

Updates from the Civil Rights Corps

Civil Rights Corps has had a busy start to the new year!  I wanted to give you three important updates:   First, we won a unanimous decision last week in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, which rejected the City […]

Politics and Public Defenders

Almost two and a half millennia ago, Aristotle concluded that “man is a political animal.” Lawyers are constantly building and mending relationships  across the political spectrum. They also navigate philosophies and loyalties that may be solely partisan or tribal.   […]

Across the State Line: Representing Clients in our Mobile Country

This blog post introduces the NAPD’s Education Committee’s Reading Criminal Records Project. For lawyers, admission to practice is by individual jurisdiction.  We become experts in the jurisdictions where we primarily represent our clients.  We understand the nuances of the local […]

Fresh Start Helps So Many

Our office has run an expungement clinic — which we call Fresh Start — twice a month for just over five years for people with convictions in Hamilton County (Cincinnati) Ohio.  We hold it at our office on the first and third […]