Today, Hunter was joined by Professor Shira Diner to discuss the Bar Advocate work stoppage in the state of Massachusetts. Back in May, the Bar Advocates, the private defense lawyers who handle 80% of Massachusetts's public defender workload, stopped taking new cases due to the incredibly low hourly rate they are paid. Since then, thousands of people have been left without representation as the courts have been unable to assign cases to attorneys. Now the question is, where does the state go from here?

Guest:

Shira Diner, Professor of Law, Boston University

Resources:

News on Bar Advocates Here

https://www.alaa.org/thealaaorganizer/massachusetts-defense-attorneys-enter-third-month-on-strike

https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2025/0916/sixth-amendment-us-constitution-massachusetts-bar-strike

https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/06/27/court-massachusetts-defense-strike-bar

https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/bar-advocates-attorney-work-stoppage-pay-raise/

https://www.massbar.org/publications/ejournal/ejournal-article/lawyers-journal-2004-november/keep-it-going-delegates-urge-continued-momentum-on-bar-advocate-pay-issue-

https://www.masslive.com/opinion/2025/07/bar-advocates-arent-striking-were-standing-for-justice-viewpoint.html

https://www.wcvb.com/article/bar-advocate-strike-massachusetts-healey/65491317

Contact Shira

https://www.bu.edu/law/profile/shira-m-diner/

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Today, Hunter was joined by Caneel Fraser and Tatyana Kaplan of California's Office of the State Public Defender. The three sat down to discuss an OSPD report, Unequal Scales, to explore how and why Public Defender's are so underfunded in comparison to prosecutors.

Guest:

Caneel Fraser, Executive Director, Indigent Defense Improvement Division, California Office of the State Public Defender

Tatyana Kaplan, Data Specialist, Indigent Defense Improvement Division, California Office of the State Public Defender

Resources:

OSPD Website

https://www.ospd.ca.gov/

Reports

https://www.ospd.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Unequal-Scales_Californias-Investment-Disparity-between-Prosecution-and-Public-Defense.pdf

https://www.ospd.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/2024-IDID-Annual-Report_Final_Accessible.pdf

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Today, Hunter was joined once again by Alec Karatkatsanis. This time, Alec is here discussing Copaganda, cop fueled propaganda that shapes the way our society understands crime, the criminal legal system, and most importantly, convinces people that the only way to make our communities safer is by increasing our policing. In his new book, Copaganda, Alec explains how this propaganda is created, how it is laundered through ostensibly liberal media sources, and what we can do about it.

Guest:

Alec Karatkatsanis, Author and Executive Director, Civil Rights Corps

Resources:

Pick up a Copy of the Book

https://firestorm.coop/products/22254-copaganda.html

Check out Civil Rights Corps's Work

https://civilrightscorps.org/

SF Standard Article

https://sfstandard.com/2025/09/08/sfpd-flock-alpr-ice-data-sharing/

Correction. When Hunter spoke about the article, he stated it was 2.1 million illegal searches. It was actually 1.6 million

Contact Hunter Parnell:

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Today, Hunter was joined by John J. Lennon to discuss his new book, The Tragedy of True Crime: Four Guilty Men and the Stories that Define Us. John is a currently incarcerated journalist who presents the stories of four men, Michael Shane Hale, Robert Chambers, Milton Jones, and his own, in his book. Each of these men committed murder, but John sets out to tell a more complete picture to try and capture a more comprehensive picture of these men and the system that punishes them.

Guest:

John J. Lennon, Incarcerated Journalist and Author

Resources:

John's Contacts

https://johnjlennon.net/

https://x.com/JohnJLennon1?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

https://www.facebook.com/JohnJLennonJournalist/

Pick up a Copy of the Book Here

https://www.amazon.com/Tragedy-True-Crime-Guilty-Stories/dp/1250858240

Contact Hunter Parnell:

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Today, Hunter was joined by Will Snowden of the Juror Project to discuss how they plan on revitalizing the jury around the country.

Guest:

Will Snowden, Director, The Juror Project

Resources:

The Juror Project

https://www.thejurorproject.org/

https://www.thejurorproject.org/contact

https://www.instagram.com/jurorproject/?hl=en

https://www.facebook.com/jurorproject/

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Today, Hunter was joined once again by Vichal Kumar of Partners for Justice. This time, Vichal joins the show to discuss a new toolkit that Partners for Justice has put together to give Public Defenders resources to up incorporate collaborative Public Defender practices.

Guest:

Vichal Kumar, Managing Director for Capacity Building, Partners for Justice

Resources:

Access the Toolkit Here

https://www.partnersforjustice.org/toolkit

Partners for Justice

https://www.partnersforjustice.org/

Contact Hunter Parnell:

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Today, Hunter was joined by Michael Rempel and Anna Stenkamp of the Data Collaborative for Justice. They discuss a recent report authored by DCJ about the impacts, or lack thereof, that came from the changes to New York's discovery laws.

*** Correction to the show. The Data Collaborative caught an error in the underlying data related to case processing times in NYC. "Due to an error found in the underlying data, the report and analyses have been updated as of September 2025. There was one consequential change that showed case processing times in NYC for indicted felonies had increased from 2019 to 2024."****

Guest:

Michael Rempel, Director, Data Collaborative for Justice

Anna Stenkamp, Senior Research Associate, Data Collaborative for Justice

Resources:

Read the Report Here

https://datacollaborativeforjustice.org/work/case-processing/discovery-reform-in-new-york-what-can-the-data-tell-us/

Data Collaborative for Justice

https://x.com/dataforjustice

https://datacollaborativeforjustice.org/

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Today, Hunter was joined by activist, prisoner journalist, and author of Ending Isolation, Christopher Blackwell. On this episode, Chris and Hunter discuss the book, the horrors of solitary confinement, and why the practice needs to end.

Guest:

Christopher Blackwell, activist, prisoner journalist, and author of Ending Isolation, and executive director of Look 2 Justice

Resources:

Christopher Blackwell's website and Socials

https://www.christopher-blackwell.com/

https://x.com/chriswblackwell?lang=en

Look to Justice

https://www.look2justice.org/

https://www.instagram.com/look2justice/?hl=en

Broken is Beautiful Podcast

https://www.brokenisbeautifulpod.com/

Contact Hunter Parnell:

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Today, Hunter was once again joined by Chesa Boudin and Eric Fish to discuss a law review article they recently published. This time, they are talking about Public Defenders and the Separation of Powers. While this seems like a law school paper for law school professors, the fundamental question posed by this episode is how Public Defenders can/should increase their political capacity to act as a check on the other branches of government.

Guest:

Chesa Boudin, Executive Director, Criminal Law and Justice Center, Berkley Law

Eric Fish, Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law

Resources:

Read the Article Here:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5198358

San Benito County Report

https://www.ospd.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/2024-IDID-Annual-Report_Final_Accessible.pdf

California Report on Flat Fee contracts

https://www.aclunc.org/sites/default/files/Contracted%20to%20Fail%20report_March%202025.pdf

Contact Hunter Parnell:

[email protected]

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Today, Hunter hosted a debate between Professor John Gross and Professor Bob Boruchowitz about the Public Defender National Workload Standards. Back in the spring of this year, John penned an article about some of the methodological and pragmatic issues with the National Workload study. Meanwhile, Bob has been working in Washington for decades to bring meaningful, enforceable workload standards across the state. Today, Hunter spoke with both of them to hear each side of this debate and to try and figure out the best way to use the national workload standards.

Guest:

John Gross, Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin School of Law

Bob Boruchowitz, Professor of Law, Seattle University School of Law

Resources:

John's Article

https://publicdefenders.us/blogs/the-problems-with-the-national-public-defense-workload-study/

John's Faculty Page

https://law.wisc.edu/profiles/john.gross

Bob's Writings

https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/wa-works-toward-easing-public-defender-shortage-but-more-must-be-done/

https://law.seattleu.edu/media/school-of-law/documents/faculty/publications/boruchowitz/2025_01_RevisedStandards.pdf

Other Responses to John's Article

https://publicdefenders.us/blogs/the-problem-with-ignoringthe-national-public-defenseworkload-study/

Contact Hunter Parnell:

[email protected]

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@PDefenselessPod

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