by Caroline Zuschek, Deputy Capital Appellate Defender

This year's BIDS Well-Being Survey Report analyzed responses from a survey sent agency-wide in July 2023. Sixty-eight percent of the agency responded, including 80 attorneys, 33 administrative professionals, 17 investigators and/or non-attorney mitigation specialists, and 4 state-wide administrative professionals.

by Meryl Carver-Allmond, BIDS Training Director

For the second summer in a row, Peter Conley, Senior Assistant Capital Defender, was invited to be a panelist at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers/Cardozo Law National Forensic College in New York. The Forensic College is a week-long seminar where some of the best forensic science brains in the country come together to learn how to use and challenge forensic evidence in defending their clients. 

by Meryl Carver-Allmond, BIDS Training Director

Sitting in her Chicago apartment one New Year’s Eve in the early twenty-tens, Danielle Hamilton Slate made the decision to go to law school. While she didn’t know exactly what she would do with a law degree, she hoped it would give her a career where she could really help people but also be more intellectually stimulated than she was in her job at the time.

Early this month, Danielle took over as Chief of the historic Third Judicial Public Defender Office in Topeka, following former Chief Jessica Glendenning’s move to head the new public defender office in Lawrence. The path that brought her to that New Year’s Eve decision, and from there to where she is now, is an engaging one.

by Meryl Carver-Allmond, BIDS Training Director

Earlier this summer, BIDS hired Emily Leiker to fill the newly created position of Assigned Counsel and Expert Coordinator. Emily works under BIDS General Counsel Brandon Barrett in the Administrative Office. If you’ve recently called for help finding counsel or an expert for a case, you’ve probably already talked to her, but for those who have not yet had the pleasure, I recently sat down with Emily to ask a few introductory questions.

by Kasper Schirer, Senior Assistant Appellate Defender

At the Appellate Defender Office, we have had a lot of questions about the effect that the recently decided United States Supreme Court case, Counterman v. Colorado, 143 S.Ct. 2016 (2023), has on the continued validity of State v. Boettger, 310 Kan. 800, 450 P.3d 805 (2019).

In response, the ADO has put together some guidance on dealing with claims by the state or judges that Counterman has overruled Boettger, and that all reckless criminal threats should be scored as person felonies moving forward. In our view, this is not the case at all.