Defending Data

Authors

Pamela R. Metzger, Southern Methodist University, Dedman School of LawFollow

Abstract

Defending Data proposes a data-driven, systems-based approach to improving public defense in America.

Public defenders represent millions of defendants every year. Yet, public defense remains a largely data-less enterprise, a black box of discretionary decisions disconnected from any systemic analysis about the relationship between defender practices and case outcomes. Defending Data adopts a novel approach to the crisis of public defense. Building off of the successful implementation of system-based approaches in other complex, high-risk industries such as aviation and medicine, Defending Data explains how defenders can develop a data-driven systems approach to public defense.

Defending Data begins by describing the data deficit in public defense and discussing the systemic, technological, and cultural reasons for this data-void. Then, Defending Data explains the systems approach to high-stakes professional practices and explores how public defenders can adapt this approach to the delivery of indigent defense services. Based on this analysis, Defending Data proposes a systems approach to public defense and offers a preliminary typology of the data that such public defenders should collect and analyze. Using concrete examples, Defending Data demonstrates how public defender systems might implement a data-driven systems approach. Defending Data concludes with a call for the indigent defense community to reimagine indigent defense by establishing national standards for defending data.

Publication Title

Southern California Law Review

Document Type

Article

Keywords

data analysis, criminal defense, Gideon, indigent defense, evidence-based, big data, systems approach

Recommended Citation

Pamela Metzger; Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, Defending Data, 88 S. Cal. L. Rev. 1057 (2015)