Stay ConnectedAnyone paying attention can tell you that our criminal legal system is perpetuating cruelty and harm, but the complexity of the legal world overwhelms most people simply trying to get through another day.
Public Defenseless explores the rot in the justice system and what we can do about it. Join host, Hunter Parnell, as he interviews top defense attorneys and criminal justice stakeholders from across the country as they pull apart the convoluted web of our criminal justice system.
After our sobering conversation about the Parkland Shooting case on Tuesday, Hunter continues looking into the death penalty in today's episode. Joining him to discuss the abolition of the death penalty in Nevada is Nancy Hart and Chris Peterson. Nancy is the President of the Nevada Coalition Against the Death Penalty and Chris is the Legal Director at the ACLU of Nevada. Together, they bring decades of experience in the criminal legal and death penalty abolition space, and both expertly lay out the policy, ethical, and practical reasons why the death penalty needs to end in Nevada.
Guests:
Nancy Hart, President, Nevada Coalition Against the Death Penalty
Chris Peterson, Legal Director, ACLU of Nevada
Resources:
Nevada Coalition Against the Death Penalty
https://www.facebook.com/nvcadp
https://www.instagram.com/nvcadp/
ACLU of Nevada
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Hunter is honored to speak with two people from the defense team of Nikolas Cruz, Casey Secor and Kate O'Shea, to discuss their role in securing a life sentence over the death penalty. Today's episode touches on an incredibly sensitive, complex topic about one of the most horrific crimes committed in recent memory. Throughout this episode, Kate and Casey draw on their years of expertise in fighting against the death penalty to explain how this incredible tragedy occurred. As is always the case in death penalty cases, Hunter, Kate, and Casey reveal the incredible advantages the prosecution is afforded, but despite these advantages, three jurors voted for life over death. In response, Florida has done everything in their power to make it easier for the state to execute people. Hopefully by the end of this incredible conversation, you will understand why Florida's response is one we should emphatically reject.
Guests:
Casey Secor, CEO and Senior Staff Attorney, Suzerain Capital Defense
Kate O'Shea, Mitigation Specialist, Suzerain Capital Defense
Resources:
Suzerain Capital Defense
Parkland Judge Reprimanded
Florida's Multifaceted Expansion of the Death Penalty Raises Constitutional Concerns
Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
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For the last episode of the year, we are returning to the Aurora Municipal Office to unpack the ongoing effort by the Aurora City Council to disband the Public Defender Office. This time, Hunter is joined by the new Chief Public Defender, Elizabeth Cadiz. Over a long career in the office, Elizabeth has seen the incredible corruption and Constitutional violations. Over the last year, she helped to orchestrate an amazing challenge to the city attorney's office pattern and practice of discovery violations. Following this victory and her taking over the office, City Council is one again determined to remove the office in favor of a "cheaper" alternative. While the City Council continues to say this is about costs, but a look back at the history of this office indicates that City Council is simply tired of having a zealous advocate stand in the way of their tough on crime agenda.
Guests:
Elizabeth Cadiz, Chief Public Defender, Aurora, Colorado Municipal Public Defense
Resources:
Aurora lawmakers agree to analyze privatizing public defender's office
Local News Coverage
https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/aurora-considering-getting-rid-public-defenders/
https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/video/aurora-considering-getting-rid-of-public-defenders/
Offense for the defense: Aurora public defenders take the stand
https://sentinelcolorado.com/metro/offense-for-the-defense-aurora-public-defenders-take-the-stand/
ACLU Letter to City Council
Defender's Union of Colorado Op-Ed
Aurora city attorneys review, notify impacted defendants of lacking 'Brady letters'
Aurora lawmakers give 1st OK to mandatory jail time for shoplifting, despite lack of cost data
Aurora lawmakers impose mandatory 3 days in jail for shoplifting more than $300
Impacts of Mandatory Minimum Sentencing:
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/end-mandatory-minimums
ACLU Report on Municipal Courts Colorado
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As a follow up to my conversation with Elizabeth Cadiz, Chief Public Defender of the Aurora Colorado Municipal Public Defender, here are some of the public comments made before City Council on 4 December 2023. Be sure to listen to my conversation with Elizabeth for the full context of these speakers! If you would like to watch the speakers on youtube, the city council meeting can be found at this link with the relevant parts starting at 27 minutes.
Today, Hunter sat down with Kimberly Simmons, the former Executive Director of the Idaho Public Defense Commission, and Paul Riggins, a private criminal defense attorney in Idaho, to discuss the past decade+ of public defense in Idaho. Like so many county based systems covered on the show, Idaho was once a patch work model where the quality of representation a person could expect depended almost entirely on where that person was arrested. Seeing the flaws in this model, Idaho took major steps to start to create more uniform standards and control of the system, but it failed to produce the results everyone wants. Tune in to hear how and why Idaho now stands on the verge of its second major public defense overhaul in just the past decade.
Guests:
Kimberly Simmons, Former Executive Director, Idaho Public Defense Commission
Paul Riggins, Criminal Defense Attorney, Idaho
Resources:
Tucker v Idaho
https://www.acluidaho.org/en/cases/tucker-v-state-idaho
2010 NLADA Report
Bonnie Groller Law Review Article
Idaho Workload Study
https://pdc.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2018/03/PDC-WORKLOAD-STUDY-online-version.pdf
Idaho Public Defender Overhaul
https://blog.idahoreports.idahoptv.org/2023/03/23/legislature-approves-public-defense-overhaul/
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In our last instalment of our mini series on the Fourth Amendment, Hunter spoke with Andrew Ferguson, Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law. On this episode, we will explore the rise of Big Data Policing, also known as predictive policing, and how the digital era we are in must be understood differently than previous eras if the Fourth Amendment is to protect people's privacy.
Guests:
Andrew Ferguson, Professor of Law, American University Washington College of Law
Resources:
Andrew's Faculty Page
https://www.wcl.american.edu/community/faculty/profile/aferguson/publications
The Rise of Big Data Policing
https://nyupress.org/9781479892822/
Real Time Crime Centers
https://www.wired.com/story/real-time-crime-centers-rtcc-us-police/
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At the founding of the country, the Fourth Amendment was designed to protect against general warrants. In the colonial period, the Crown would secure warrants to search anything and everything in one's possession in often meritless attempts to harass and intimidate colonists. One would think that this history would make people wary at the thought of such a warrant, but with the advent of Geo-Fence and Key Word Search Warrants, the general warrant has entered the digital age…with the legal system struggling to keep up. Today, Hunter is joined by Mike Price, the Litigation Director of the Fourth Amendment Center, to discuss these new warrants, and what, if anything, can be done to stop them.
Guests:
Mike Price, Litigation Director, Fourth Amendment Center, NACDL
Resources:
Fourth Amendment Center
https://www.nacdl.org/Landing/FourthAmendmentCenter
US v Chatrie
https://www.nacdl.org/Document/US-v-Chatrie-4th-Circuit-Appeal-Brief
Colorado Seymour Case
https://www.nacdl.org/Document/Seymour-Rule-21-Petition
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Continuing our Fourth Amendment mini-series, Hunter is joined today by Clare Garvie, the facial recognition technology guru at the Fourth Amendment Center. As she lays out in her excellent report on facial recognition technology, its use is widespread, and that should frighten everyone. Thanks to Clare's expertise, hopefully each of you will walk away understanding that facial recognition technology is not something that police departments should be using any time soon.
Guests:
Clare Garvie, Training and Resource Counsel, Fourth Amendment Center, NACDL
Resources:
Fourth Amendment Center
https://www.nacdl.org/Landing/FourthAmendmentCenter
A Forensic Without the Science: Face Recognition in U.S Criminal Investigation
http://forensicwithoutscience.org/
New Jersey v Arteaga
Wrongful Arrest of Porsha Woddruff
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/06/business/facial-recognition-false-arrest.html
Email Clare
cgarvie@nacdl.org
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Today, we kick of two straight weeks of coverage on the future of the Fourth Amendment. We start our mini-series by speaking to the Director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyer's Fourth Amendment Center Jumana Musa. Today's episode sets the stage for our upcoming conversations about facial recognition, reverse key word warrants, geofence warrants, and the general rise of big data policing. The ultimate question: Given the Supreme Court and lower Court decisions on Fourth Amendment Cases, what faith should we have that the legal profession is ready to usher the Fourth Amendment into the 21st century?
Guests:
Jumana Musa, Director, Fourth Amendment Center, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
Resources:
Carpenter v U.S.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/16-402_h315.pdf
Riley v California
https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/13-132
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Fourth Amendment Center
https://www.nacdl.org/Landing/FourthAmendmentCenter
ACLU Fourth Amendment
https://www.aclu.org/issues/criminal-law-reform/reforming-police/search-and-seizure
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