General Jurisdiction/Trial Courts

CJI will conduct interviews to determine prosecutors' understanding, perception, and experience of the JRI process. That information will be used to increase prosecutor engagement in future JRI efforts. Pilot interviews will be conducted with two prosecutor offices. CJI and BJA will use the information gleaned from those interviews to discuss the possibility of additional study or other next steps to engage prosecutors in the JRI process.

January - June 2023: Approved to develop trial skills program for the PD staff.
July-Dec. 2023: Staff attorney did 3 presentations for their staff lawyers in April 2023 titled: Defending Confession Cases, the California Racial justice Act and Investigating and Litigating Police Misconduct. Developed agenda for trial skills program, they held first session with future sessions planned and will be present and teach at one or two of these. Have been asked to assist newly appointed misdemeanor supervisor with planning training for their misdemeanor attorneys.

January to June 2023 Update: Will develop plan for yearlong and new attorney training which is currently almost non-existent except for annual conference and an occasional in house training in larger offices, will assist with planning for annual conference which will occur Sept 27-29 2023
Jul. to Dec. 2023: Had an initial meeting with the head of their agency and have made several attempts to re-establish contact but they have been non-responsive thus far.

January -June 2023: Law Office of the New Mexico Public Defender. Assessed past two years of training (all of which were by remote due to covid pandemic), reviewing and planning new lawyer training and annual training plan, will be speaking at 2023 annual conference in Albuquerque NM on June 7 & 8th

January to June 2023: Assist Office Director and Deputy director with creating a training plan (office does not have training director) for staff, including monthly trainings, recommending speakers and conference planning.
Jul. to Dec. 2023: Travelled to their office and did CLE for staff and panel lawyers on Defending Confession cases on December 8, 2023. Developed nine Week new lawyer training program; dates to be set once their county approves new hires.

January - June 2023: Networked training directors and office heads of county and state defender offices in the U.S. mountain states to plan a week long trial skills training program to be held in Salt Lake City in April 2024. Application is pending for BJA approval, only one group meeting held thus far; otherwise have spoken with various agency heads. Primary contact is Richard Mauro, Executive Director of Salt Lake Legal Defender

January - June 2023: Application approved to assist newly appointed Mississippi Training Director with organizing bi-annual public defense training conference and speaking at training. Meetings every 2-3 weeks from beginning planning to published agenda (so about a month off). 2023 conference dates are April 27-29 and October 26-28. Will be travelling to the fall conference in Jackson MS to speak.

JOIN US June 28, 2023 at 3pm ET for the next entry in our "Murder 101" webinar series, "Trial Strategy and Preserving the Record." Presented by Tulsa County DA Steve Kunzweiler, this webinar is excellent for building the skills of newer complex homicide and capital prosecutors.

NACDL will send attorney and mitigation specialist subject matter experts to Pennsylvania to train Capital Defense Units (including newly hired staff) on best practices in mitigation. The training will focus on trainees' existing cases and utilize the Bring-Your-Own-Case (BYOC) model to the extent feasible.

This training was cancelled by the PA Capital Defense Units due to shortage of staff. This will hopefully be rescheduled to Spring of 2024.

This training program will utilize the Bring Your Own Case (BYOC) model to provide needed training to capital defense teams, as well as provide the basis for ongoing technical assistance. The combined defense team will work with a faculty of leading experts on issues directly relevant to the defenders' training needs. The agenda is developed in accordance with the BYOC model and is tailored to the specific training needs of the trainees. The program was preceded by a single-day train-the-trainers program for program facilitators.