Date: 08-10-2023
The Ten Principles is revised after 21 years and comes at the perfect time. Independent state oversight, statewide data collection, elimination of public defender fees, and early access to counsel are highlights from this revision. |
From Sixth Amendment Center:
On August 7, 2023, the American Bar Association (ABA) passed the revised ABA Ten Principles of a Public Defense Delivery System, a “critically important roadmap” to help policymakers provide “effective indigent defense services as required by the Sixth Amendment.” This could not have come at a better time. Three years of Covid-19 and its continued aftermath brought constitutional upheaval to a number of states, unmooring public defense systems and leaving behind a trail of poor people without lawyers in jails across the nation.
While each state is unique, no state is alone in its obligation under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to house a functional public defense system that protects the right to counsel for every poor defendant. This is an extraordinarily complex mandate to fulfill for any state government, especially in a post-Covid-19 legal market, and as the legal requirements for the right to counsel continue to expand and evolve.
To all the policymakers and stakeholders today who play a role in upholding this constitutional right: these ABA Ten Principles are revised and rewritten for you. Below are the highlights. Continue reading here.
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