NACDL - Public Defender, Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida v. State, Fla.

Public Defender, Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida v. State, Fla.

Amicus curiae brief of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Public Interest Law Section of the Florida Bar, University of Miami School of Law Center for Ethics and Public Service, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Brennan Center for Justice, and the Constitution Project in support of petitioner.

Brief filed: 01/10/2012

Documents

Public-Defender,-Eleventh-Judicial-Circuit-of-Florida-v-State.pdf

Public Defender, Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida v. State, Fla.

Supreme Court of Florida; Case No. 09-1181 & 10-1349

Argument(s)

The petitioner and assistant public defenders for the 11th Judicial Circuit have shown that their excessive caseloads imminently threaten not only to create conflicts of interest but also to deprive current and former indigent clients of constitutionally-effective assistance of counsel and are therefore entitled to limit further representations without waiting for those threats to materialize; extensive evidence presented in the trial court establishes both ongoing violations of the Sixth Amendment rights of petitioner’s clients and an unacceptable risk of future violations; the intermediate court of appeal improperly limited the scope of the Sixth Amendment as it applies to systemic deficiencies.

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