Last October, Idaho's public defense system went from being a county run office to a state office and it hasn’t been an easy transition.
There have been numerous stories of defendants trying, with no luck, to contact their court-appointed attorneys, as well as attorneys not showing up in court to represent their clients.
The ACLU of Idaho says the situation has reached such a crisis level that they’re now asking the Idaho Supreme Court to step in. On December 23, they filed an emergency motion with the court.
Ritchie Eppink is one of the lead attorneys on this case, working with the ACLU of Idaho, and he joins Idaho Matters for an update.