Letter to the Editor From NLADA's David Carroll, Director of Research and Evaluation, Defender Legal Services, Printed in Las Vegas Review-Journal

Letter Responds to Paper's Editorial on Nevada Supreme Court's Ruling for Indigent Defense Reform

Date: January 15, 2008

Published on the Opinion Page of the Las Vegas Review-Journal on January 10, 2008

To the editor:

The Review-Journal's Tuesday editorial on public defenders offered some well-deserved praise to the Nevada Supreme Court for making sweeping changes to the state's indigent defense system, but it seems all too eager to continue to restrain the public's right to defense representation based on hypothetical fiscal concerns.

It is important for government institutions to operate on sound cost management, but this cannot be used as an excuse to limit the rights of the people. Sound fiscal judgment should be based on reducing waste, not by limiting access to our court system for those whom the U.S. Constitution guarantees such access.

With basic human rights at risk, these changes, as well as future recommended caseload limits, should not be part of a pick-and-choose scenario.

David Carroll

WASHINGTON, D.C.

You can read the letter online at http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/13672352.html and see the editorial, which David is quoted in and the letter is in response, at http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/13522127.html.