Notwithstanding pressure from prosecutors and judges to clear the backlog of cases remaining from the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, DPD’s defense teams worked through an extraordinary volume of trials and negotiated resolutions to felony and misdemeanor charges on behalf of thousands of clients. The department’s lawyers, mitigation specialists, investigators, and administrative staff demonstrated exceptional tenacity and ingenuity to achieve clients’ stated interests and preserve their humanity.
Through their determination, they won not guilty verdicts at trial, convinced prosecutors to dismiss or reduce charges, secured clients’ release from inhumane conditions while incarcerated pretrial, and helped people avoid exiting jail only to end up on the street without support. DPD’s staff also continued fighting for resentencing hearings for people sentenced to decades in prison for offenses committed in their youth.
DPD worked in partnership with community, the department’s line staff, and other institutional system participants to propose court rules, advance legislation, and advocate for policies that to mitigate some impacts of the classist and racially disproportionate systems that oppress DPD’s clients.
Conditions Worsen for People Incarcerated in King County
Despite a surge of in-custody deaths in 2022, King County prosecutors continue to advocate for, and judges continued to impose, bail amounts that result in the incarceration of our community’s most vulnerable members. Rather than heed the calls of community advocates to close the King County Jail, the County attempted to adapt to the continued shortage of corrections officers by shuffling clients between its facilities in Seattle and Kent while contracting for additional capacity to cage people at the South Correctional Entity (SCORE) jail. Both strategies failed to address the excessive time spent by our clients in their cells.Disruptions in medications to support the physical and mental health of those jailed continued, and re-entry resources grew increasingly scarce.
The shuttling between facilities increased hardships for clients and DPD staff as some clients failed to be transported to court, requiring rescheduled hearings and releases, unnecessarily prolonging clients’ time in jail. Following media reports about four people who died while in custody at SCORE, thankfully none of whom were DPD clients, the County terminated its contract after three months.
Heavy Caseloads Compound the Crisis
Against this backdrop, DPD’sstaff worked tirelessly to minimize the time their clients spent incarcerated.Their efforts were stymied, not just by jail operational challenges, but also byKing County’sProsecuting Attorney’Office,whichcontinuedtoflood the County’s criminal legal system withnewcases(primarily involving property crime)whilealsopressing to resolve older cases.
Attorneys faceda persistentlack of responsiveness from prosecutors whenattemptingto negotiate resolutionsto serious charges, according to felony attorney Clare Riva.Inone particularlyexasperatingcase from last year, she recountedconveying her client’s willingness to plea to a lesser misdemeanorduring an early stage of thecasebutRivanever got a response from the prosecutor assigned to the case.After committing substantial time and resources topreparingfor trial,the State made the very sameoffer to her client on the eve of opening statements.
Felony attorney Noah Lerner echoed the frustrationwiththe KCPAO’swillingnessto press forward withweakchargeson which jury after jury refused to convict his clients.In the final two months of2023, Lerner said he secured three not guilty verdicts in a row – but had to begineach trial whilestillwaitingfor a verdictinthe trialhe’djust finished. Thatpaceisn’tsustainable, in his opinion:“No one can do that forever without taking some time to decompress and time off from that level of intensity.” While presiding judges in both Seattle and Kent haveacknowledgedthat drivingdefenseattorneys at this pacedestabilizesthe criminaldefensebar, the pressure topushcasesforwardremained relentless.
While the KCPAO pointed to declining plea rates as the source of overload in the system, ClareRivainsightfully recognized thatprosecutor’spossessed a far more efficient mechanism of reducing the backlog by"actually looking at their cases and talking to their witnesses and not filing things.”
Client-Centered Representation Gets Results
Dre Glaspy and his defense team were thrilled by the outcome of his 14-week trial. From left, Anna Samuel, Emily Willard, Alix Willard, Dre Glaspy, Michael Schueler, and Molly Gilbert.
One notable trial from 2023 exemplifies the importance of DPD’s client-centered approach to public defense.D’Andre Glaspy, who goes by Dre,spent5 years injailsimply because hecouldn’tafford the $1 million bail imposed in his case.Prosecutors alleged hewas responsible forthe death ofhis girlfriend’s two-year-old son Moses, whenin actualityhehad done everything in his power to save the boy’s life.
Moses died afterMr. Glaspy, whowas like a father to the boy, followeddevastatingly incorrectinstructionsfroma 911 operatoron howto perform CPR.
Mr. Glaspy appreciated not just the work but the humanity that his defense team, Michael Schueler, Anna Samuel, Gary Shaleen, Alix Willard, Emily Willard, and Molly Gilbert,brought to his case:“They put their everything into it; they made my truthcome to light.That means the world to me.”
Providing this kind of quality representation to every clientis DPD’s goal.Butheavycaseloadsdriven by unrelenting filings from prosecutorscomplicate that effort andlead tolong stays injail prior to trial.Astheresulting strain causedmore and moreattorneys qualified torepresentclients facing Class Acharges like Dre’s to leave DPD in 2023, the transfer of those cases to an even smaller group of lawyersdelayed those clients’ day in court even further.
Overcoming that “rapport deficit,” as felony attorney Kyle Ehlersdescribedthechallenge public defenders facein bonding with clientsrightly suspicious of anyone involved in the criminal legal system, takes an incredible amount of workand attention to detail. “If you missacouple calls oracouple text messages,you can destroy a relationship very easily. Andthat'ssomething youcan'tnecessarily get back.”
Mitigating the Harm of Racist Systems of Oppression
Katie Hurley (far right) joins coalition partners as Gov. Inslee signs law restricting youth sex offender registration.
To complement and support the outstanding representationDPD’s line attorneys provide to their clients, the departmentalso workedatthe city, county, and state level toreduce theharm of the systems that oppress poor people in King County.
In 2023,DPDwon a significant victory forthe department’s current and future clients inpassing a state law thatprevents someone’s juvenileadjudications fromleading to a longer sentence whenconvicted forwholly separateconduct as an adult. An “offender score” – based on prior convictions or adjudications –determinesa person’s standard sentence range.
The new lawendedthe automatic use of the vast majority juvenile court adjudications in calculating that score–butprior to passage,lawmakers stripped a provision from theproposal that would have made the reform retroactive and grant resentencinghearingsforpeopleserving unnecessarily long prison sentencesas a result ofthe now-outlawed practice.
“This bill will make a tangible difference for thousands of our clients,” Anita Khandelwal said. “Long sentences are a driver of mass incarceration, and anything we can do to shorten those sentences and make a harshly punitive system a little less punitive is movement in the right direction. But we still have a long way to go.We’redisappointed that people now in prison due to sentences made longer by this harmful policy will not be resentenced, andwe’llcontinue to work with our partners to ensure people receive the relief they deserve.”
DPD also finally managed to get another legislative proposal over the finish line in 2023, passing a law tolimit the list of circ*mstances that require a young person to registeras a sex offenderand completely ends registration foralmost allyouth under the age of 16.The reformwasbadly needed, asyouthrequiredto register are four times more likely to report having actively attempted suicide compared to unregistered youth; five times more likely to be approached by an adult for sex, and twice as likely to be the victim of sexual assault by an adult.
“The passage of this bill will help thousands of young people who will no longer suffer from the harm and trauma of registration,” Katie Hurley said.And in fact, it did: by the year’s end, more than 2,500 young people had their names removed from Washington’s sex offender registrybecause ofthe new law.
In addition to working to pass legislation, DPDproposed amendments to several court rulesthat would effectivelyrenderthe private bail bonds industry unnecessary,expeditethe availability of redacted discovery for DPD’s clients without adverse consequences for ongoing plea negotiations, and broaden judicial authority to dismiss a case in the interests of justice.As 2023came to a close, Washington’s Supreme Courtorderedall ofthose proposalspublished for public consideration and potential adoption in 2024.
