Public defenders play a very important role in our judicial system. Unfortunately, many public defenders have workload that greatly surpasses the national standards and it adversely affects their effectiveness. Write an essay of at least 800 words, using statitics and examples from Opel and Patel, Gonneman, and Pinto to illustrute the importance of public defenders’ work and its impact on defendants like Kalief Browder.
Suggeted Structure
- Introduction: Overview of the public defender system and thesis statement.
- Body 1: Overworked public defenders: Statistics and examples about Talaska and Marro from Opel and Patel. Additional information from Pinto if needed. 200-250 words.
- Body 2: High percentage of plea deals: Statistics from Opel and Patel, Gonnerman, and Pinto. How plea deals could lead to miscarriage of justice: Tomlin. 200-250 words.
- Body 3: Ineffective counsel. Browder’s example from Gonnerman. What his public defender failed to do and its consequence. 200-250 words.
- Conclusion: Summary of main ideas, call for action. 100 words.
Requirements:
- State your thesis clearly at the end of the introduction.
- Use topic sentences to start your body paragraphs.
- Cite relevant statistics from the reading(s) to support your analysis.
- Quote from the readings, but do not over-quote. Do not take a large number of sentences from the readings and patch them together as your own writing.
- Your essay should have a minimum of 800 words.
- Write a title for your essay.
- You need to use at least three sources: Gonnerman, Opel and Patel, and Pinto. List the sources at the end of the essay, using alphabetical order.
- Proofread carefully. Pay particular attention to vocabulary, sentence structure, punctuation, verb forms and verb tenses.
. Focus on the topic. This essay is not about bail. It is not just about plea deals. It is about the heavy workload of many public defenders, which leads to their heavy reliance on plea deals and their inability to provide effective counsel.
2. The first body paragraph should focus on how overworked most public defenders are. To support this, describe Telaska and Bob Marro’s workload and use statistics Opel and Patel cited in their ariticlet to show how common the problem is. Use information from Pinto’s article if you want to illustrate the situation further (optional).
3. The second body paragraph should review the major adverse consequence of overworked public defenders: their heavy reliance on plea deals. Refer to statistics cited by Pinto regarding New York city, Gonnerman re the Bronx and Opel and Patel re the entire country. Use Tomlin or Browder’s example to show how plea deals can lead to miscarriage of justice for innocent people.
4. The third body paragraph should describe Kalief Browder’s tragic outcome and discuss the role his public defender played in the outcome. You need to describe at least two or three actions Browder’s public defender should have taken but did not do, which contributed to Browder spending three years in jail.
5. Use topic sentences to introduce the main idea of each body paragraph and connect paragraphs. For example, body 1 should start with a statement about the heavy workload of public defenders, body 2 with a statement about the connection between public defender’s heavy workload and their heavy reliance on plea deals, and body 3 with a statement about the difference an ineffective public defender can have on the outcome of a case.
6. Pay attention to verb tenses. Use the present tense when you discuss the general situation. However, when you refer to specific examples and statistics, like those of Tomlin and Browder, or the two public defenders in Opel and Patel’s article, use the past tense.
7. List the all the sources at the end of the essay in MLA format. It is not enough to list only the web addresses.
what was graded on the essay i gave in: Michelle, Your main idea is clear, but many of the supporting ideas are not fully developed, and the essay fails to meet several requirements. Parts of the essay are not clearly focused on the topic. Your sources are not properly listed.
* Mention Supreme courts decision In intro
* i have a lot of mistakes in my essay like not writing the correct authors in the text not using the right authors for the example
*Use Talaskas and bob marros example in first body paragraph
*Use Nick pintos plea statistics in second body paragraph
*Use Browders Example in the third paragraph
Sources;
Three years in Rikers without trial By Gonnerman |newyorker https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/06/before-the-law
One lawyer, 194 felony cases, and no time by Opel and Patel | https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/01/31/us/public-defender-case-loads.html
The Bail Trap By Nick Pinto| https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/magazine/the-bail-trap.html