Han, Fog City Journal
The U.S. Constitution requires that an accused person who lacks the means to hire a lawyer is provided one. The job of public defenders and court appointed attorneys is to ensure that our constitutional rights are protected, that all Americans are treated fairly under the law, and that injustice and governmental misconduct are exposed.
Due to the economic downturn, an ever-increasing number of people cannot afford a lawyer and must rely on public defenders and court appointed counsel for help. Yet in San Francisco and across the nation, public defense offices are facing budget cuts that will make it impossible to provide adequate representation to their clients.
San Francisco’s elected Public Defender Jeff Adachi will open the summit and introduce keynote speaker federal Judge Thelton Henderson, senior judge for the Northern District of California. The legendary Judge Henderson has made headlines in recent years by appointing a receiver to run California’s prison health system, saying evidence in an inmate lawsuit showed that inadequate medical care kills at least one inmate a week, constituting cruel and unusual punishment. The three-judge panel he heads “has ruled that overcrowding at the prisons – now filled at twice their designed capacity of 80,000 – was the primary cause of inadequate health care, and has tentatively ordered the release of between 37,000 and 58,000 inmates to local custody, treatment programs or parole,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle