Washington, DC, November 2, 2001 — The American Council of Chief Defenders (ACCD) is pleased to announce that former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno is this year's recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Award for her extraordinary contributions to the field of indigent defense.

The Robert F. Kennedy Award honors the contributions of a criminal justice system leader other than a defender, whose work acknowledges the critical role the public defense function plays in ensuring fair justice systems. The award is named for former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in honor of his support for quality public defense systems, including shepherding through to passage the nation’s first indigent defense statute, the federal Criminal Justice Act.

"It was Reno's recognition of the importance of the defense function and the Justice Department's support of indigent defense during her tenure as attorney general that inspired the creation of this award," said Rita Fry, chair of the ACCD’s Executive Committee and chief defender for Cook County, Illinois. "Her leadership has had a profound impact on public defense and on the fairness and effectiveness of this country's criminal justice systems that will be felt for decades to come."

As the nation's first female attorney general, Reno headed the world's largest law office (125,000 employees) for nearly eight years. Known throughout government for her integrity, independence and innovative leadership, she used the authority of her office to seek to fundamentally transform the nation’s criminal justice processes, from assembly-line processing of criminal charges to community-oriented, problem-solving approaches to policing, prosecution, courts, corrections and defense. She has fostered unprecedented dialogue among all the components of the justice system about their shared responsibility to work with community institutions, to intervene constructively in the in the cycles of substance abuse, mental illness, poverty and crime, to prevent recidivism and stop the revolving door. And she has embraced the cause of indigent defense improvement both because the justice system as a whole can succeed “only if we provide every defendant with competent counsel,” as she has said, and because “a good lawyer is the best defense against a wrongful conviction.”

Reno is a native of South Florida and graduate of Harvard Law School. Prior to her appointment as attorney general, she served for 15 years as the State's Attorney for Dade County.

For more information about NLADA's awards, contact Mizue Suito, NLADA director of development, at (202) 452-0620 ext. 217 or via e-mail at m.suito@nlada.org.

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The National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA), founded in 1911, is the oldest and largest national, nonprofit membership organization devoting all of its resources to advocating equal access to justice for all Americans. NLADA champions effective legal assistance for people who cannot afford counsel, serves as a collective voice for both civil legal services and public defense services throughout the nation and provides a wide range of services and benefits to its individual and organizational members.

"This award is, appropriately, not just about indigent defense and not just given to a public defender. Rather, it is about the responsibility of other criminal justice system leaders to do all they can to promote quality indigent defense, funded in parity with the prosecution, to ensure a fair trial and protect the innocent. It is about bringing other criminal justice system leaders together, to say jointly to legislatures, executive branch officials, and other policymakers, that the problem of underfunded or inadequate indigent defense is not just a problem for indigent defendants, but a problem for our democracy."

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in letter to NLADA regarding establishment of ACCD/NLADA award in honor of his father, August 2000.