A Message from Incoming NAPD Steering Committee Chair Paul DeWolfe

Tell the public defense community about your journey to leadership? I joined the Maryland Public Defender’s Office in 1981 as an Assistant Public Defender in the Montgomery County Office. For the next ten years I served as a trial attorney […]

My Sincere Thanks

In addition to being unquestionably one of the very best at his craft, Bob was also a most generous and kind man. Bob represented people from all across the country. If you had money, and were unfortunate enough to have […]

Cussing

In our local Knoxville Bar Association publication, DICTA, (October 2017) a highly regarded local criminal defense attorney, Ann Short, wrote an article on cussing, revealing that she was a prolific “cusser.” She admitted that cussing came naturally to her. Ann […]

NAPD Launches Mentors Program

NAPD, through its Systems Builders Committee, works to strengthen the quality of public defense delivery systems throughout the country. The Systems Builders Committee is comprised of current and retired defender leaders, public defender board and/or commission members, and system advocates […]

Public Defender Statement on Garcia Zarate Verdict

San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi released the following statement today following the acquittal of Jose Ines Garcia Zarate on murder and manslaughter charges.   “Mr. Garcia Zarate is extremely relieved by today’s verdict.  The untimely death of Kate Steinle […]

Baltimore Youth Need Services, Not Prisons

This op-ed was published in the Baltimore Sun on November 29, 2017. You can read the whole article here: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-op-1130-juvenile-offenders-20171129-story.html Anyone who has tried to debate a high school freshman knows perhaps one of the world’s universal truths: Teenagers are not […]

Voices From St. Louis: Workloads Conference Recap

I was present for most of the Workload Conference, in between making sure that all the power points were loaded and that coffee was refreshed.  It was an exciting conference.  All of the presentations and power points will soon be […]

How to moderate the undeniable lethality of victim impact statements

Two years later, Justice O’Connor wrote in her concurring opinion in Payne v. Tennessee (1991), that “a quick glimpse of the life” taken by the petitioner may be encapsulated before the jury in a victim impact statement, overruling Booth’s total […]

An Interview with Damon Preston, Kentucky Public Advocate

Damon Preston, Kentucky Public Advocate NAPD:  Tell us about your career as a public defender?   I started as a public defender in the Harvard Defenders clinical in law school.  Since then, I have worked as an appellate defender for […]

Putting Theory Into Practice

After spending the past three years doing training for investigators, paralegals, support staff and new lawyers, I recently made my way back to trial work. I’ve been back in the trenches for about eight weeks and building my caseload with […]