Defender Services

Death Penalty Authorization Process
Following discussions between the chairs of the Executive Committee and Defender Services Committee with senior officials at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the AO facilitated work with DOJ to develop a new Criminal Justice Act (CJA) Guideline. It encourages courts to set reasonable

The deadlines pertain to defense counsel's mitigation submission to the local U.S. attorney, the U.S. attorney's submission of his/her recommendation about seeking the death penalty to the DOJ, and the Attorney General's decision on whether to pursue the case as a capital matter.

Case-Budgeting Video
In collaboration with the Federal Judicial Center, the AO produced a training video for federal judges, "Budgeting Criminal Cases: High-Cost CJA Panel Representations." The video focuses on issues related to the court's responsibility in managing expenditures in high-cost capital and non-capital criminal cases in which the defendant is represented by a private "panel" attorney pursuant to the CJA.

Criminal Justice Act Training
The AO presented and supported more than 30 training events for federal defender staff, CJA panel attorneys, and other CJA practitioners in FY 2007. Distance learning opportunities were enhanced, as federal defender organization staff accessed Judiciary Online University's web-based training more than 460 times during the year. In addition, the AO's Office of Defender Services continued to increase the quantity and accessibility of educational materials on its web site (www.fd.org) for CJA practitioners.

Community Defender Organization Stewardship
Community defender organizations are nonprofit organizations funded by grants from the Defender Services appropriation. Like federal public defender organizations, they provide defense counsel to persons eligible for CJA representation. Based on a recommendation from a community defender organization working group established by the AO Director, the Committee on Defender Services directed community defender organizations to limit their personnel policies to those available to federal public defender organizations (or to obtain an exception from the Committee) when not doing so could result in additional costs. The working group continues to study personnel and benefits policies, as well as other issues of concern to community defender organizations and the Committee on Defender Services.

New Defender Organizations
Ninety of the 94 federal judicial districts are now served by a federal defender organization. A new community defender organization was established during 2007 in the Middle District of Georgia, as was a branch office in the Northern District of Mississippi, of the Federal Public Defender Organization for the Southern District of Mississippi. Only the Northern District of Alabama, the Southern District of Georgia, the Eastern District of Kentucky, and the District of the Northern Mariana Islands now operate without the benefit of a federal defender organization.