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2025 Impact Report
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Transforming Public Defense in New Orleans
Since Hurricane Katrina, public defense in New Orleans has undergone a profound transformation. What emerged from the storm was not only a rebuilding of physical infrastructure, but a reimagining of how constitutional defense could and should operate in a city shaped by deep inequities, mass incarceration, and community trauma. Orleans Public Defenders (OPD) was created in this context and has since evolved into a nationally recognized client-centered public defense.
This report situates OPD’s work in 2025 within the broader arc of growth and change since Katrina, highlighting how far public defense has come, and the systemic pressures that continue to define the work today.
Public Defense Before and After Katrina
Prior to Hurricane Katrina, public defense in New Orleans was fragmented, under-resourced, and heavily reliant on court-appointed private attorneys paid per case. This structure incentivized speed over quality, offered little oversight, and provided minimal investigative or social service support to clients. Defendants routinely faced excessive delays, limited attorney contact, and inadequate advocacy.
Hurricane Katrina exposed and exacerbated these failures. Court closures, lost files, mass displacement, and prolonged pretrial detention underscored the constitutional crisis facing indigent defense in Orleans Parish. In the years that followed, litigation, community advocacy, and national attention created momentum for reform.
The establishment of Orleans Public Defenders marked a decisive shift, from a fragmented appointment system to a unified, institutional public defense office grounded in professional standards, ethical obligations, and accountability.
In the years that followed, litigation, advocacy, and national attention led to the creation of a unified public defender office grounded in professional standards, accountability, and full-time representation.
OPD and BJ’S Lounge Join National Concerts for Indigent Defense Saturday, March 28 with Luke Allen and the Happy Talk Band and The Bottoms
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Concert Celebrates the Landmark 1963 SCOTUS Ruling with Shows Across the Country to Support the Right to Counsel and Continue the Fight for Fair and Equitable Criminal Legal System
New Orleans –The Orleans Public Defenders, BJ’s Lounge and Luke Allen and the Happy Talk Band will join forces to bring the national Concerts for Indigent Defense to New Orleans on March 28, 2026. The event celebrates Gideon Day, the anniversary of the landmark 1963 United States Supreme Court’s ruling that enshrined the Right to Counsel and OPD’s continued fight for a fair, just and equitable criminal legal system. The New Orleans show joins other shows in Houston, Denver, and Santa Fe, NM.
March 18th marks the 63rd anniversary of the constitutional Right to Counsel established by the U.S. Supreme Court. Gideon v Wainwright was a watershed moment for the criminal legal system that cemented the right for everyone to be represented by an attorney when facing a loss of liberty. Modern public defense began with Gideon and the Supreme Court ruling, yet more than 60 years later, the Right to Counsel remains unfulfilled, and even threatened, due to underfunding and disregard for the critical role of public defense. Now more than ever, the right to legal representation is paramount. Public defenders protect and fight for the rights of their clients, hold power accountable, and work to ensure their communities are equitable and just.
Letters: Let’s not refuse to look into deaths in New Orleans jail
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Recently, Carmel Rhodes died in the New Orleans jail, a jail under federal oversight since June 2013. This is not the first death in the jail since then; it’s the 26th.
Our city confronts death all the time. We mourn our loved ones in public. We gather for meals, homegoings and second-lines. And together, we share our understanding of how that person lived and died. Yet, when someone dies in our custody in a jail, we know very little.
NPR All Things Considered: Hurricane Katrina was a catalyst for change in New Orleans' public defender office
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Hurricane Katrina was a catalyst for change in New Orleans' public defender office
All Things Considered, By Ari Shapiro
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans 20 years ago this month, Meghan Garvey was fresh out of law school.
She was not even certified to work as a lawyer yet, but she wound up helping a team find thousands of incarcerated people who were lost in the prison system after the storm.
"There were people being moved around to different sorts of jails and prisons around the state. They kept moving people here and there," Garvey recalled recently. "It was really hard to figure out where people were, what they were in jail for, what was going on."
OPD, SULC and BPDA Announce Diamonique Whaley Attorney Fellowship
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Southern University Law Center, Orleans Public Defenders, and the Black Public Defender Association Announce Inaugural Diamonique Whaley Attorney Fellowship to Honor Alumna’s Legacy and Champion Public Defense in New Orleans
Baton Rouge, LA — Southern University Law Center (SULC), in partnership with the Orleans Public Defenders (OPD) and the Black Public Defender Association (BPDA), proudly announces the launch of the Diamonique Whaley Attorney Fellowship. This yearlong fellowship with the Orleans Public Defenders provides recent Southern Law graduates with a unique and impactful opportunity to launch their careers in public defense and community advocacy.
The fellowship is named in memory of Diamonique Whaley, a graduate of Southern University Law Center, and dedicated Staff Attorney with OPD in New Orleans. Throughout her legal career, Whaley zealously represented people navigating the legal system, but her passion was working with kids in both the juvenile and adult legal systems. Whaley was deeply committed to advocating for her clients and fighting against the injustices of the criminal legal system and harms of system interaction.
NPR All Things Considered: New Orleans' court system collapsed under Katrina, but some saw hope for change
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New Orleans' court system collapsed under Katrina, but some saw hope for change
All Things Considered, By Ari Shapiro
With New Orleans under water, people incarcerated there were bused out to detention facilities across the South. Their records didn't go with them, massively complicating their legal cases.
SHAPIRO: In a functioning criminal justice system, public defenders should have been representing most of these thousands of people. Legal defense is a constitutional right. But nothing about the New Orleans criminal justice system was working the way it was supposed to.
OPD IN THE MEDIA
HBO's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver Talks Public Defense featuring OPD
Public Defense Matters
See our new YouTube channel and listen to some of our stories.
Indefensible: The Story of New Orleans' Public Defenders
More than 80% of defendants in New Orleans can’t afford a lawyer ...
When the Public Defender Says, ‘I Can’t Help’
“Your Honor, we do not have a lawyer for this person at this time.”
