Today, Maura Dolan of the Los Angeles Times provides excellent reporting of the indigent defense crisis as it impacts death penalty appeals in California. Read the article, “Lack of funding builds death row logjam,” in its entirety here.

It’s a topic that gets covered periodically by the national media: a cruel reality that needs so much more public acknowledgement and awareness. For example, in 2001, the New York Times covered a similar crisis in Alabama; in 2004, the Washington Post did a story about Robin Maher’s attempts to bring attention to the matter via the American Bar Association’s Death Penalty Representation Project. However, from our research, most of the discussion of this issue comes not from the main stream media, but from bloggers and non-profit efforts, and the LA Times coverage by Ms. Dolan is most welcome.

Please see full article below for more information.