Ensuring the Public Defense of Indigent Defendants in Cook County
The Criminal Justice Advisory Committee, a joint group of the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice and the Chicago Council of Lawyers, has released a report on whether criminal defendants in Chicago’s felony preliminary hearing courtrooms receive the public defense required by the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and by Illinois law.
The report follows two years of working with stakeholders to correct problems identified by the Criminal Justice Advisory Committee that resulted in denial of a public defense for persons entitled to one. While additional work remains, there are early and clear indications that our reform efforts, along with Cook County judges’ receptivity to change, have increased access to a public defense for indigent criminal defendants and improved adherence with Constitutional and statutory requirements.