The Most Wonderful Retort: Please do

San Francisco Assistant Public Defender Jami Tillotson taught me the most wonderful retort: “Please do.” In the courthouse corridor yesterday, Jamie Tillotson was the consummate professional. She kept her head and considered her options while never missing a beat. In […]

Jami

You said, come over this way Not a muscle tempted I said, I’m right here Standing with my client I won’t follow you so you can Move your dirty work outside of the frame Like usual   You said, I […]

The State of Colorado vs. James Holmes: Why the Death Penalty?

Guest Opinion Submission by Xavier Amador, Ph.D. Visiting Professor of Psychology, State University of New York and Director, The LEAP Institute, New York.  He has worked on over 50 death penalty cases involving seriously mentally ill defendants including that of Theodore Kaczynski (the […]

Achieving True Justice for Public Defense Clients

This is a continuation of a conversation between Andre Vitale and John Gross prompted by a video of Gerry Spence.   You can catch up on the conversation with the links below   2 Minute Gerry Spence talk about Public Defenders […]

The Defender Initiative Will Hold its Fifth Annual Conference on Public Defense

MARCH 06, 2015 | 7.5 GENERAL WASHINGTON STATE CLE CREDITS, PENDING Webcast available. Washington’s Supreme Court has fully implemented its first in the country court rule on defender standards, including caseload limits. The recent historic Federal Court order requiring two […]

Guest Commentary in Denver Post: Reviled clients and our Constitution

"The right of one charged with a crime to counsel may not be deemed fundamental and essential to fair trials in some countries, but it is in ours." This memorable language was coined by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1963, […]

New Study on the Cost of the Death Penalty in Washington State

It costs more than one million dollars more to pursue the death penalty than not to seek it in an aggravated murder case in Washington State, according to a new study by four professors at Seattle University. The report, AN ANALYSIS […]

Hot Tip for the Thrifty Client-Centered Advocate

Right now is the ideal time to dash out to your nearest drug store or stationers and buy discount holiday cards to mail to clients in jail. Only don’t mail them out today. Put the cards with cheery snowpeople and […]

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE WORK AND TALENT OF PUBLIC DEFENSE LAWYERS

I have proudly served as a public defender for more than 15 years.  When I speak to any audience whether undergraduate students deciding whether or not to pursue a career as a lawyer; law school students on the cusp of starting […]

And Justice For All!

During a time when many of us are questioning the criminal justice system's handling of cases, I wanted to share one case reflecting that our continued struggle to eliminate disparities in how defendants are treated can pay off. In People v. […]