Scott Hechinger (@scotthech) joins Sajid (@thesajidkhan) and Avi (@avanindar) to talk about public defender movement building. @Scotthech talks about the Zealo.us, a project to train public defenders on movement building and media advocacy. They talk about the termination of two public defenders who filed an amicus brief in support of providing counsel to people at the first court appearance. They talk about the movement that formed in response to the terminations and the larger fight for public defender independence in the US. Scott shares some of his thoughts on some areas for advocacy on behalf of incarcerated people during a pandemic.

Lee Rosevere composed and performed the intro and outro of the pod. Music at the break by Are We Hunting (Ryan Perrault is a member of the band and fellow public defender). Check out the whole song at the end of the pod. They have a Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/arewehunting

To learn more about what is happening in MontCo, check out this article in The Appeal by Vaidya Gullapalli: https://theappeal.org/public-defenders-have-an-obligation-to-speak-out/

Here is the amicus brief: https://www.aclupa.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/bail_commission_amicus_montco_pd_2.3.20.pdf?utm_source=The+Appeal&utm_campaign=d63547ac79-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_08_09_04_14_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_72df992d84-d63547ac79-58408851

Here is an ACLU petition to support Dean Beer and Keisha Hudson (@khudsonpdlife)