WASHINGTON --- A landmark trial will get underway in the New York State Supreme Court on Tuesday, giving a formal hearing to decades’ worth of complaints that the state’s public defense system is illegal and even unconstitutional. Interest in the case goes well beyond New York, however, given the chronic funding problems that public defenders in
Chronically Underfunded Public Defense System Goes On Trial In New York
New York state’s public defense system — underfunded, overwhelmed — goes on trial for failing to provide adequate legal representation to the state’s poor. With other states’ defense systems in similar shambles, what happens in New York could have huge implications.