Victims’ Advocate and Former Judge Pen Op-Ed Calling for an Independent Public Defense Commission

The Times Union has published an op-ed piece entitled “N.Y.'s poor need qualified legal defense, too.” It sums up the problem in its first sentence: “All New Yorkers suffer when poor people accused of crimes do not have competent defense counsel with adequate tools to provide a reliable defense.” The op-ed highlights the role of deficient public defense representation in wrongful convictions as well as New York State’s low status nationally in terms of how it provides public defense services. The piece concludes by calling for an independent public defense commission and for full state funding of public defense services!

One of the op-ed authors, Susan Herman, wrote "Parallel Justice for Victims of Crime;" an associate professor at Pace University, she is a victim’s advocate who calls for the justice system to meet parallel obligations to victims and offenders. The other, Rhoda Billings, is professor emeritus at Wake Forest University School of Law and former North Carolina Supreme Court Justice. Both are members of the Constitution Project’s National Right to Counsel Committee which issued, just a year ago: “Justice Denied: America’s Continuing Neglect of Our Constitutional Right to Counsel.”