DPD’s 19 interns just wrapped up a 10-week program. Four of them talked to us about what made it meaningful — from arguing motions, to challenging search warrants, to going to trial. Most meaningful, they said, was working with clients, fighting on behalf of people ensnared in a harmful system.
Many at DPD are mourning Don Madsen, a public defense leader who loved the work and the people who were drawn to it.
Nate Sanders had lost hope of an early release. Then the State Supreme Court invalidated the state’s felony drug law, and a DPD attorney sent him a letter. He’s now a free man.
Unregulated evidence, from the way a person dresses to the color of their skin, profoundly influences jurors. And yet it often goes unchallenged and unchecked, says Bennett Capers.
DPD started its post-conviction unit earlier this year. Already, its three part-time attorneys have seen 200 people, helping many of them extinguish thousands of dollars in crippling LFOs and wipe old convictions from their records.
Emanuel Fair sat in jail for nearly nine years before he was acquitted of a murder charge in June. Ben Goldsmith and Katharine Edwards fought hard to make it happen.
What should you do if you’re stopped by the police? Three youth in King County share an important message.
Criminal records hinder a person’s ability to get a job, secure housing, obtain benefits and more. The Department of Public Defense’s new post-conviction relief unit will help people rebuild their lives by vacating convictions and expunging records as allowed under state law.
A Seattle Municipal Court (SMC) policy permitting a judge to hold certain defendants in jail more than one business day before a preliminary appearance was struck down yesterday in a significant win for criminal defendants.
Thanks to a pilot project funded by the City of Seattle, the Department of Public Defense is now able to address the civil consequences of a criminal conviction or arrest.
For The Defense 