253 | The ACLU Lawsuit Seeking to Radically Change Pennsylvania Public Defense w/Vic Walczak and Veronica Miller

Today, Hunter is joined by two amazing guests from the ACLU of Pennsylvania. Vic Walczak and Veronica Miller join the show to discuss the newest ACLU lawsuit being brought against Pennsylvania for its failure to adequately fund public defense. As we heard last week on the show, things in Pennsylvania Public Defense are failing because of Pennsylvania utterly failing to meet its obligations as a state to fund Public Defense, but why sue now? After all, under Governor Shapiro, the state has allocated its first money towards Public Defense ever. As you will here today, this lawsuit has been a long time coming, and hopefully, with it will come the types of overhaul necessary to ensure the promise of Gideon is fulfilled in Pennsylvania.     Guests: Vic Walczak, Legal Director, ACLU of Pennsylvania Veronica Miller, Senior Policy Counsel for Criminal Legal Reform, ACLU of Pennsylvania     Resources: ACLU of PA Twitter: https://x.com/aclupa Website: https://www.aclupa.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aclupa YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/aclupa Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aclupa/ Complaint: https://www.aclupa.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/warren_v_commonwealth_petition_for_review_-_final.pdf Read more about the case: https://www.aclupa.org/en/defenders UPenn Study: https://www.law.upenn.edu/live/news/16737-significant-public-defender-shortage 2011 Report: http://jsg.legis.state.pa.us/resources/documents/ftp/publications/2011-265-indigent%20defense.pdf Law Suit Against Luzerne County https://www.aclupa.org/en/cases/kuren-v-luzerne-county-formerly-flora-v-luzerne-county     Contact Hunter Parnell:                                             [email protected]  Instagram @PublicDefenselessPodcast Twitter                                                                 @PDefenselessPod www.publicdefenseless.com  Subscribe to the Patron www.patreon.com/PublicDefenselessPodcast  Donate on PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=5KW7WMJWEXTAJ Donate on Stripe https://donate.stripe.com/7sI01tb2v3dwaM8cMN  *As a reminder, any statements made on the show do not reflect the views or policies of the Colorado Office of the State Public Defender*