Free Press Editorial Chastises Public Defender System in Michigan as "Shortchanging" Indigent Defendants

"Michigan's appalling public defense system has made a sham of the constitutional right to adequate legal counsel. No uniform standards and scandalously low pay, among other things, prevent many indigent defendants in Michigan from getting effective legal assistance and, ultimately, a fair trial.

Inadequate legal representation for the poor is a national scandal. But Michigan's system is among the very worst, ranking 44th among the 50 states in spending -- lower than Alabama, for example. Michigan is also one of only a handful of states that rely almost entirely on counties to pay for and run a public defense system..."

www.freep.com/article/20100702/OPINION01/7020318/1322/Justice-shortchanged-in-public-defense-system

July 2: Anniversary of LBJ's Signing of Civil Rights Act of 1964

"On July 2, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson finally signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964—one of the most important pieces of legislation in US history, which outlawed racial segregation in public places, abolished the South’s discriminatory Jim Crow laws, and introduced equal rights for all Americans applying to register to vote. The bill, initially put forth by President Kennedy in 1963, was by no means a final solution to the problem of social division in America—while it allowed African Americans the right to apply to vote, it notably lacked provisions to make the requirement tests for registration fair and democratic—but its passage was a victory for the civil rights movement and its supporters.

Today, to celebrate the bill’s anniversary, we feature a portfolio of images from photographer Dan Budnik, a member of Magnum Photos and close friend of Bruce Davidson, who was introduced to some of the leading figures from the civil rights movement by his art teacher Charles Alston in the early 50s."

www.nowness.com/day/2010/7/2/701/on-this-day--the-signing-of-the-civil-rights-act?ecid=soc1268#close