My name is Suyeon Kim, and I'm very proud to be a part of the group of Cardozo students who will be spending this Spring Break volunteering at the Public Defenders Office in New Orleans.  The group also includes Kathy Hwang (1L), the coordinator, Adam Shane (1L), Mike Akerly (1L), and Choya Washington (3L).  We all wanted to spend our time off to learn about the New Orleans criminal justice system and try and do our small part to improve the state of indigent defense in that city.  This trip has been generously funded in part by members of the Cardozo community, including administration and faculty, as well as by friends and family.  I will be recording our experiences through this blog, and we invite you to keep track of our progress during the coming days.  Our first day on the job will be Wednesday, April 4th, and we'll all be in New Orleans by tomorrow to settle into our hotel, the Creole Gardens, located in the lower Garden District. 

Here is an article from CNN.com from just this past Friday that briefly describes the latest development in the ongoing struggle for adequately funded indigent defense in New Orleans: a criminal court judge ordered the release of 42 criminal defendants because they were not receiving adequate representation (the judge immediately stayed the order to mid-April).  The last paragraph is a quote from the head of the Defenders Office, Steve Singer, who suggested that the judge was frustrated by the Louisiana state legislature's failure to allocate the requisite funding to create a functional defender's office:

New Orleans judge orders 42 freed

POSTED: 3:13 p.m. EDT, March 30, 2007

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- A judge on Friday ordered the release of up to 42 criminal defendants, saying they aren't being adequately represented by the city's financially struggling indigent defenders office.

But Orleans Criminal Court Judge Arthur Hunter immediately delayed the order to mid April.

It wasn't clear how many suspects would be released after April 18 if Hunter's order stands.

The order would suspend their prosecution but not dismiss the charges against them.

Assistant District Attorney David Pipes said his office might appeal. He said most of the 42 defendants face drug charges, but several are charged with violent crimes, including armed robbery and sexual battery.

Hunter faulted the Louisiana Legislature for failing to adequately fund the Indigent Defenders Office in New Orleans.

"Hurricane Katrina is no longer an excuse and the state has a budget surplus. Indigent defense in New Orleans is unbelievable, unconstitutional, totally lacking the basic professional standards of legal representation and a mockery of what a criminal justice system should be in a western civilized nation," the judge wrote.

Before the hurricane hit, three-quarters of the defenders office's budget was financed by traffic court fines. That revenue dried up after the Katrina devastated New Orleans in August 2005.

Hunter, who had released some inmates facing misdemeanor drug possession charges last year for the same reason, said he delayed his new release order so he could get more information from the District Attorney's Office, the state bar association and the indigent defenders.

"I think the judge is clearly frustrated with the Louisiana Legislature's repeated failure to step up to its obligation to fund a critical aspect of the criminal justice system -- that is, indigent defense," said Stephen Singer, lead trial counsel for the public defenders office.

Judging from this article, it looks like we won't lack for things to do during our stay.