Public defenders rarely make it on the federal bench. Not anymore | Courthouse News Service

As a former member of the trial pool of the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender I am proud of the fact that 40% of Biden/Harris nominees for the federal bench have had some experience as Public Defenders. New Jersey's State Bar Association has a long history of respect for public defenders.

The OPD defends almost every felony defendant in New Jersey.  But perhaps more important was its twenty year struggle against the death penalty from its 1982 restoration to its 2007 repeal.  Some 260 capital trials yielded some 60 death sentences.  But thanks to the PD's relentless defense and the extraordinary integrity of the New Jersey Supreme Court - under both Democratic and Republican leadership - no one was executed.  The basic reason? As a 2008 Seton Hall symposium featuring prosecutors, defenders and legislators showed, it was impossible in the end to make coherent distinctions between those who served life sentences and those who were sentenced to death.

- GWC

Public defenders rarely make it on the federal bench. Not anymore

Part of Biden's push to overhaul the makeup of the federal courts includes a focus on nominating former public defenders, attorneys who are historically under-represented on the federal bench.

ROSE WAGNER / January 21, 2022 COURTHOUSE NEWS SERVICE