EJS Director of Law and Public Policy Kimberly Thomas Rapp participated as a speaker at yesterday’s 2009 Justice Summit: Defending the Public and the Constitution.
The Justice Summit was a public education event initiated by the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, Bar Association of San Francisco, California Public Defenders Association and California Attorneys for Criminal Justice to highlight the importance of protecting the right to counsel, particularly for people of color and modest incomes, during any economic downturn.
Kimberly spoke about the role of the public defender in fighting institutional racism in the criminal justice system. Others on the panel included Barbara Babcock, professor at Stanford Law School, Richard Goemann, director of defender legal services for National Legal Aid and Defender Association, Michael Judge, chief public defender for Los Angeles County, Cookie Ridolfi, director of Northern California Innocence Project, Barry Krisberg, director of National Council on Crime and Delinquency, Michael Hersek, State Public Defender, and Christine Voss, supervising public defender for Riverside County.
For more information on the Summit, visit http://sfpublicdefender.org/2009-justice-summit/
And a nice mention of Kimberly on this blog.