At Maryland Matters, MDU President Marci Tarrant Johnson writes on the OPD Board of Trustees and the Public Defender selection process!
Opinion: What to Look for in Maryland’s Next Chief Public Defender
[...] Our union is made up of workers across all the different positions at the Office of the Public Defender. Every day, we fight tenaciously for the civil rights and well-being of Maryland residents who can’t afford to pay for legal representation. We know what makes our agency thrive and what makes it fall short. Our perspective is of immense value to the agency, and important decisions like this one should not be made without our input and expertise.
With that in mind, I recently sent a letter to the board laying out four principles that it must embrace and prioritize in the search and selection process for the next public defender: transparency, diversity, commitment and solidarity. [...]