Blogging from Boot Camp

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Katie Higgins is a member of the inaugural class of Public Defender Corps Fellows and recently received two weeks of intensive training in Alabama with the rest of our first Public Defender Corps class.

“This is not a job, it’s a calling.”  This is what the inaugural class of Public Defender Corps Fellows heard from Norris Henderson, a man exonerated after 27 years of incarceration due to a wrongful conviction. 

I recently spent two weeks, along with the 17 other new Public Defender Corps members, and 26 young public defenders from across the South, in Birmingham, Alabama for an intensive training held by the Southern Public Defender Training Center (SPDTC). Every August, the SPDTC holds a 15-day Summer Institute in Birmingham – a training so thorough and demanding that it is informally known as Public Defender Boot Camp.  This year, with the addition of the 18 Public Defender Corps Fellows, the SPDTC saw its largest class yet – 44 students from 13 different states reaching as far north as New York and as far west as Texas.  The training featured a total of 65 faculty members, well-regarded public defenders and clinical professors from around the country, who gave up vacations, family reunions and their children’s first day of school in order to come to Alabama to teach and inspire this new class of students.

Our training began with discussions on why we do the work that we do; how we learn to listen to our clients and then tell their stories to the court or a jury; and what client-centered representation really means. While this sounds fairly basic and introductory, it turned out to be an important and necessary foundation for the remainder of the training. In learning how to tell our clients’ stories, we had to learn how to tell our own stories and those of our fellow students. This meant that we all had to open ourselves and our pasts up to a group of 44 strangers – it was probably more group sharing than any of us had ever experienced before. It was empowering and inspiring, and created tight bonds and lasting friendships. It also made us more comfortable in the other training sessions, where we learned, practiced, and performed pre-trial and trial skills that will be extraordinarily useful in the work that we do for our real clients.

At the end of the 15 days, we were all utterly exhausted. We had heard countless stories from students and faculty of violence, pain and death. We had in-depth discussions about slavery, racism and our nation’s criminal justice system. We brainstormed defense theories, practiced picking a jury, honed our hearsay objection skills, and wrote opening and closing statements.  We laughed together (there was a whoopee cushion incident), sang together (karaoke in Alabama!), and cried together – even the people who swore on Day 1 that they were not criers. Most importantly, we formed a community. We met faculty and other students who will be our emotional support system in the months and years to come. And we all were invigorated to go back to our offices with a renewed sense of passion and commitment to our clients, at a time when they will need nothing more than a fierce advocate with open ears, courtroom skills and a huge heart.

Katie Higgins has previously served as an Equal Justice Works AmeriCorps Legal Fellow at Legal Assistance of Western New York in Ithaca.  As a Public Defender Corps member, Katie will join the Monroe County Public Defenders to provided additional support for those accused and unable to afford counsel. The Public Defender Corps is a new initiative of Equal Justice Works and the Southern Public Defender Center (SPDTC), created in order to improve indigent defense in America. The vision of the Public Defender Corps is to provide comprehensive training and support to new attorneys starting out in indigent defense, which they can then take back to their individual offices and communities, ultimately improving the standard of representation of people charged with crimes who cannot afford a lawyer.