Public Defenseless

Today, Hunter sat down for a powerful conversation with Scarlett Lewis. Scarlett's son Jesse Lewis was one of the children murdered in the Sandy Hook school shooting. In the wake of this tragedy, Scarlett grappled with the grief, sadness, and anger that any person would face. Yet, Scarlett wanted to choose a different path than anger. So Scarlett founded the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement with the goal of teaching children social-emotional learning strategies to try and address violence at its roots. Guests: Scarlett Lewis, Founder, Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement Resources: Choose Love Movement Socials https://chooselovemovement.org/ https://x.com/ChooseLoveM https://www.facebook.com/JLChooseLove https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-jesse-lewis-choose-love-foundation/ https://www.instagram.com/chooselovemovement/ https://www.youtube.com/user/chooselovefoundation Contact Scarlett https://x.com/scarlettmlewis?lang=en A GOP Texas school board member campaigned against schools indoctrinating kids. Then she read the curriculum. https://www.texastribune.org/2024/05/15/texas-granbury-isd-school-board-courtney-gore/ Contact Hunter Parnell: Publicdefenseless@gmail.com Instagram @PublicDefenselessPodcast Twitter @PDefenselessPod www.publicdefenseless.com Subscribe to the Patron www.patreon.com/PublicDefenselessPodcast Donate on PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=5KW7WMJWEXTAJ Donate on Stripe https://donate.stripe.com/7sI01tb2v3dwaM8cMN *Any Comments made by Myself are mine and mine alone and do not reflect the views of the Colorado Office of the State Public Defender*

Today, Hunter is joined by Chesa Boudin, the former District Attorney of San Francisco, to discuss his transition from public defender to prosecutor and the challenges he faced in trying to make systemic change. He shares examples of cases where he felt limited in his ability to create meaningful impact as a public defender, leading him to pursue a career in prosecution. Boudin also discusses the difficulties of implementing progressive policies within a prosecutor's office, including the resistance from the old guard and the limitations imposed by labor rules. They highlight how police departments and unions can undermine democracy at the local level and the challenges faced by progressive prosecutors. The discussion also touches on the difficulty of messaging and getting voters on board with criminal justice reform. Guests: Chesa Boudin, Executive Director, Criminal Law and Justice Center, Berkley Law Resources: Chesa's Faculty Page https://www.law.berkeley.edu/our-faculty/faculty-profiles/chesa-boudin/ Follow Chesa on Twitter https://x.com/chesaboudin?lang=en Eric Salwell on Prosecutors https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/this-is-not-normal-swalwell-calls-out-soft-on-violent-crime-prosecutors-in-tweet/ Reports on Crime in California https://www.cjcj.org/reports-publications?page=4 Contact Hunter Parnell: Publicdefenseless@gmail.com Instagram @PublicDefenselessPodcast Twitter @PDefenselessPod www.publicdefenseless.com Subscribe to the Patron www.patreon.com/PublicDefenselessPodcast Donate on PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=5KW7WMJWEXTAJ Donate on Stripe https://donate.stripe.com/7sI01tb2v3dwaM8cMN *As a reminder, any statements made on the show do not reflect the views or policies of the Colorado Office of the State Public Defender*

Today, Hunter sat down with Eric Whitcher, Director of the Pennington County Public Defender Office. Until recently, South Dakota and Pennsylvania shared the inglorious distinction of being the last two states in the country to provide 0 dollars towards public defense at the state level. Finally after years of advocacy, it appears South Dakota is about to change that. Eric joins the show to discuss the statewide commission that is primed to start a massive overhaul of the Public Defense delivery in the state. Guests: Eric Whitcher, Director, Pennington County Public Defense, South Dakota Resources: Pennington County Public Defender Website https://www.pennco.org/pdo Eric's Linked in https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-whitcher-07b9aa295?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F HB 1057 https://sdlegislature.gov/Session/Bill/24943 Task Force Report https://ujs.sd.gov/uploads/committees/Indigent/ILSTaskForceFinalReportRecommendations.pdf Contact Hunter Parnell: Publicdefenseless@gmail.com Instagram @PublicDefenselessPodcast Twitter @PDefenselessPod www.publicdefenseless.com Subscribe to the Patron www.patreon.com/PublicDefenselessPodcast Donate on PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=5KW7WMJWEXTAJ Donate on Stripe https://donate.stripe.com/7sI01tb2v3dwaM8cMN *As a reminder, any statements made on the show do not reflect the views or policies of the Colorado Office of the State Public Defender*

Today, Hunter sat down with once again with Travis Finck, the Executive Director of the North Dakota Commission on Legal Counsel for Indigents. This time, we discuss the precarious place that Public Defense is in the state. With major staffing shortfalls, the full time Public Defenders have massive vacancy rates, and with low contract pay, there are only so many private counsels willing to take on attorneys. What can be done to avert a crisis? Hopefully it starts with the legislatures recent realization that there just might be a crisis if they continue to do nothing. Guests: Travis Finck, Executive Director, North Dakota Commission on Legal Counsel for Indigents Resources: Link to Legislative Meeting with Video, Presentation and Report (video starts at 2:28) https://ndlegis.gov/events/2024/03/07/judiciary-committee News Coverage of the Issues https://northdakotamonitor.com/2024/03/14/public-defenders-underpaid-overworked-north-dakota-report-says/ https://bismarcktribune.com/news/state-regional/crime-courts/public-defenders-underpaid-overworked-north-dakota-report-says/article_76910028-f819-11ee-a575-8f6da532994a.html ND CLCI Website https://www.indigents.nd.gov/ Contact Hunter Parnell: Publicdefenseless@gmail.com Instagram @PublicDefenselessPodcast Twitter @PDefenselessPod www.publicdefenseless.com Subscribe to the Patron www.patreon.com/PublicDefenselessPodcast Donate on PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=5KW7WMJWEXTAJ Donate on Stripe https://donate.stripe.com/7sI01tb2v3dwaM8cMN *As a reminder, any statements made on the show do not reflect the views or policies of the Colorado Office of the State Public Defender*

Today, Hunter sat down with Grant Miller a Utah Public Defender running for Utah House District 24. Throughout the course of the show, Hunter and numerous guests have discussed the importance of getting the public defender experience into legislatures around the country. Part of the reason our laws are so skewed towards police and prosecutors is because police and prosecutors drastically outnumber the public defenders in the legislature. Grant aims to change that with a campaign that revolves around injecting the humanity that public defenders use in their daily fights for their clients. Guests: Grant Miller, Public Defender and Candidate for Utah House District 24, Salt Lake City Resources: Grants Contacts and Websites https://www.grantmillerforhouse24.com/ https://www.instagram.com/grantistheguy/ https://x.com/grantistheguy_ https://www.linkedin.com/in/grant-miller-955700b0/ Secure a Ballot in Utah https://vote.utah.gov/learn-about-voting-by-mail-and-absentee-voting/ Election Day Vote Centers Salt Lake City https://slco.org/clerk/elections/voting-in-person/election-day-vote-centers/ Contact Hunter Parnell: Publicdefenseless@gmail.com Instagram @PublicDefenselessPodcast Twitter @PDefenselessPod www.publicdefenseless.com Subscribe to the Patron www.patreon.com/PublicDefenselessPodcast Donate on PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=5KW7WMJWEXTAJ Donate on Stripe https://donate.stripe.com/7sI01tb2v3dwaM8cMN *As a reminder, any statements made on the show do not reflect the views or policies of the Colorado Office of the State Public Defender*

Today, Hunter sat down with Duci Goncalves and Lael Chester to discuss how Massachusetts has started to reimagine how the criminal legal system treats emerging adults. As most of us remember, we didn't always make the best choices as children, and that questionable decision making didn't just improve the moment we turned 18. Yet in the criminal legal system, 18 is treated as a magic number where suddenly we assume you are a fully developed adult. With new brain science, we understand that 18 is not some magic number, and those between the ages of 18-25 still have a developing brain. To adhere to our understanding of modern brain science, Massachusetts is setting out on a new path to how the legal system handles emerging adult offenders. Guests: Duci Goncalves, Deputy Chief Counsel, Youth Advocacy Division, Committee For Public Counsel Services, Massachusetts Lael Chester, Director, Emerging Adult Justice Project, Columbia University Justice Lab Resources: Lael's Faculty Page https://justicelab.columbia.edu/people/lael-chester Massachusetts Changes LWOP for Emerging Adults https://www.bostonpoliticalreview.org/post/mass-supreme-court-raises-life-without-parole-sentencing-from-18-to-21#:~:text=January%2015%2C%202024%2C%20marked%20a,sent%20waves%20throughout%20the%20nation. Commonwealth v Robinson https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ma-supreme-judicial-court/115703587.html Commonwealth v Mattis https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ma-supreme-judicial-court/115703895.html Emerging Adult Innovation with CPCS a) Website page on the national EAJ Developmental Framework project: https://www.eajustice.org/ea-developmental-framework b) Announcement of the launch of the project: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5c6458c07788975dfd586d90/t/642b478230438b045ee02455/1680557954756/Columbia+Justice+Lab+Announcement+of+EAJ+Innovation+Sites+3.31.23.pdf c) JJIE article: https://jjie.org/2023/05/11/1442839/ Emerging Adult Information https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2021/07/22/reimagine-juvenile-justice-emerging-adults-gen-z/ideas/essay/ Raise the Age Campaign https://www.raisetheagema.org/ Contact Hunter Parnell: Publicdefenseless@gmail.com Instagram @PublicDefenselessPodcast Twitter @PDefenselessPod www.publicdefenseless.com Subscribe to the Patron www.patreon.com/PublicDefenselessPodcast Donate on PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=5KW7WMJWEXTAJ Donate on Stripe https://donate.stripe.com/7sI01tb2v3dwaM8cMN *Any Comments made by Myself are mine and mine alone and do not reflect the views of the Colorado Office of the State Public Defender*

Today, Hunter is joined once again by University of Michigan Professor of Law Eve Primus. So far, Eve and Hunter have discussed Public Defender Systems, Structures, and how Law Schools can do better at getting students interested in Public Defense. However, today's conversation is focused on her upcoming law review article about how courts around the country have eroded the famous Miranda warnings and what we can do about it. Guests: Eve Primus, Professor of Law, University of Michigan Resources: The State[s] of Confession Law in a Post-Miranda World: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4742148 The Future of Confession Law: Toward Rules for the Voluntariness Test: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2540302 Contact Hunter Parnell: Publicdefenseless@gmail.com Instagram @PublicDefenselessPodcast Twitter @PDefenselessPod www.publicdefenseless.com Subscribe to the Patron www.patreon.com/PublicDefenselessPodcast Donate on PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=5KW7WMJWEXTAJ Donate on Stripe https://donate.stripe.com/7sI01tb2v3dwaM8cMN *Any Comments made by Myself are mine and mine alone and do not reflect the views of the Colorado Office of the State Public Defender*

Today, Hunter is joined Lucian Dervan, Professor of Law and Director of Criminal Justice Studies at Belmont College and Founding Director of the Plea Bargaining Institute. For more than a decade, Lucian has been at the forefront of uncovering the troubling issues with America's plea deal driven criminal legal system. Lucian founded the Plea Bargaining Institute in order to bring together the latest and greatest research and caselaw on plea bargaining to help people challenge our plea bargaining system. Guests: Lucian Dervan, Professor of Law and Director of Criminal Justice Studies, Belmont College of Law, Founding Director of the Plea Bargaining Institute Resources: Plea Bargaining Institute https://pleabargaininginstitute.com/ Brady v US https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/397/742/ Lucian's Faculty Page https://www.belmont.edu/profiles/lucian-dervan/ 14 Principles of Plea Bargaining https://www.americanbar.org/groups/criminal_justice/publications/criminal-justice-magazine/2024/winter/fourteen-principles-path-forward-plea-bargaining-reform/ Plea Bargaining Study https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=jclc Follow Lucian https://x.com/luciandervan?lang=en Contact Hunter Parnell: Publicdefenseless@gmail.com Instagram @PublicDefenselessPodcast Twitter @PDefenselessPod www.publicdefenseless.com Subscribe to the Patron www.patreon.com/PublicDefenselessPodcast Donate on PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=5KW7WMJWEXTAJ Donate on Stripe https://donate.stripe.com/7sI01tb2v3dwaM8cMN *Any Comments made by Myself are mine and mine alone and do not reflect the views of the Colorao Office of the State Public Defender*

Today, Hunter is joined by another amazing guest from the Wren Collective, Adrienne Johnson. Today's conversation is about their report on Public Defense in Gwinnet County, Georgia. While there is a state wide Public Defender in Georgia, Gwinnet County has been able to maintain its independence from the state system. If Public Defender's in Gwinnett County want to maintain that independence, it is essential that they address some of the glaring problems in Public Defense that this report exposed. Guests: Adrienne Johnson, Senior Counsel, Wren Collective Resources: Read the Report Here https://www.wrencollective.org/_files/ugd/8fe8f0_ff1ad77fe24b47db9bb6fef98d6aad47.pdf Contact Hunter Parnell: Publicdefenseless@gmail.com Instagram @PublicDefenselessPodcast Twitter @PDefenselessPod www.publicdefenseless.com Subscribe to the Patron www.patreon.com/PublicDefenselessPodcast Donate on PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=5KW7WMJWEXTAJ Donate on Stripe https://donate.stripe.com/7sI01tb2v3dwaM8cMN *Any Comments made by Myself are mine and mine alone and do not reflect the views of the Colorado Office of the State Public Defender*

Today, Hunter is joined once again by Justice Text Co-Founder Devshi Mehrotra to discuss how Justice Text is helping Public Defender Office's enter the digital era. This time, Devshi brought Elisabeth Pollock, Chief of the Champaign IL Public Defender Office, to talk about the serious digital overhaul Elisabeth undertook once she took charge of the office. Coming from the federal system, Elisabeth was used to a fully digital system, so it came as quiet a shock when Elisabeth realized that her new office in Champaign County was a completely paper-based system. Thankfully with the help of Justice Text, Elisabeth was able to quickly digitize the office and finally start analysing the countless hours of body camera generated by their cases. Guests: Elisabeth Pollock, Chief Public Defender, Champaign County, Illinois Devshi Mehrotra, Co-Founder, Justice Text Resources: Justice Text https://justicetext.com/ Chicago Appleseed Fair Trial https://www.chicagoappleseed.org/ Elisabeth Contact https://www.linkedin.com/in/elisabeth-pollock-38377110/ Contact Hunter Parnell: Publicdefenseless@gmail.com Instagram @PublicDefenselessPodcast Twitter @PDefenselessPod www.publicdefenseless.com Subscribe to the Patron www.patreon.com/PublicDefenselessPodcast Donate on PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=5KW7WMJWEXTAJ Donate on Stripe https://donate.stripe.com/7sI01tb2v3dwaM8cMN *Any Comments made by Myself are mine and mine alone and do not reflect the views of the Colorao Office of the State Public Defender*