Volume 60
Date
2023

A Public Defense Perspective: An Interview with Heather Pinckney, Director of Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia

by Aasha Rajani

The Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (“PDS”) has been a fixture in Washington, D.C. since its establishment as a Legal Aid Agency (“LAA”) in 1960. Even before the United States Supreme Court decision in Gideon v. Wainwright, which guaranteed legal counsel to indigent defendants, PDS, then known as LAA, was representing individuals who could not afford counsel in serious criminal, juvenile, and mental health legal cases.

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