Koch Industries gives grant to NACDL “to address the nation’s profound indigent defense crisis”

You hear a lot about the Koch brothers these days, but this press release from the National Association of Criminal Defense

Lawyers cuts against the usual narrative:

Washington, DC (Oct. 21, 2014) – The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), the nation’s preeminent organization advancing the mission of the criminal defense bar to ensure justice and due process for persons accused of crime or wrongdoing, has been selected by Koch Industries, Inc. to receive a major grant in support of NACDL’s efforts to address the nation’s profound indigent defense crisis.

There are two components to this generous and critical initiative:

* Significant expansion of access to training through an ambitious combination of scholarship support for indigent defenders, web-based training via the Internet, and targeted on-site training for indigent defense providers who lack adequate resources to provide comprehensive continuing education for line attorneys and supervisors.

* Examination of state level indigent defense delivery systems in order to ascertain strengths that can be replicated elsewhere as well as weaknesses and the ways in which those can be rectified.

. . .

NACDL President Theodore Simon said: “This funding will significantly enhance NACDL’s ever-vigilant, ongoing efforts and capacity to elevate the caliber of representation available to those who cannot afford to hire a lawyer when they face criminal charges. No one – regardless of financial means – who faces a criminal prosecution, should be deprived of the guiding hand of experienced counsel. This grant from Koch brings us closer to the day when that goal will be a reality. It is an important step to fulfill the promise of Gideon, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the Sixth Amendment right to counsel for the indigent.”