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43 Just. Sys. J. 1 (2022)

handle is hein.journals/jusj43 and id is 1 raw text is: JUSTICE SYSTEM JOURNAL
2022, VOL. 43, NO. 1, 1-2                                                     Koutleuge
https://doi.org/1 0.1080/0098261 X.2022.2085495                               Taylor & Francis Group
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Letter from the Editor-Volume 43, Issue 1
I am incredibly pleased to start off Volume 43 of Justice System Journal with a Special Issue enti-
tled Justice For All: A Collection of New Empirical Research on Indigent Defense. JSJ is pub-
lished under an arrangement between the National Center for State Courts and Routledge (Taylor
& Francis). The Journal's commitment is to providing an outlet for innovative, social scientific
research on the myriad of issues that pertain to the third branch of government. Information
about JSJ, including the Journal's Aims & Scopes as well as instructions for manuscript submis-
sions, can be found at our website: http://www.tandfonline.com/ujsj. Manuscript submissions are
processed solely online through the ScholarOne system, and the direct link to submit a manu-
script is http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ujsj.
This issue reflects a special issue on Indigent Defense, guest edited by Andrew Davies
(Southern Methodist University) and Janet Moore (University of Cincinnati). Dr. Davies and
Professor Moore are the co-founders and leaders of the Indigent Defense Research Association, a
research collaborative focused on answering empirical questions surrounding indigent defense to
improve its practice. Each year they publish a collection of novel empirical research representing
the best of this field, and Justice System Journal is honored to host this year's collection. Dr.
Davies and Professor Moore have once again produced a Special Issue that will be adding to the
broader literature on indigent defense for years to come.
This Special Issue begins with an Introduction by Dr. Davies and Professor Moore that pro-
vides the background for this research collection, as well as previewing the overarching themes
contained in the proceeding research articles.
The first set of articles focus on how to assess attorney-client relationships. Our first article is
by Heather Pruss (Bellarmine University), M. Sandys (Indiana University), and S.M. Walsh
(Indiana University Southeast), entitled Listen, Hear My Side, Back Me Up': What Clients
Want from Public Defenders. As the title notes, this study presents the results of a survey inves-
tigating client evaluations and expectations for public defenders. The second article, Bridging the
Gap Between Clients and Public Defenders: Introducing a Structured Shadow Method to
Examine Attorney Communication, by Christopher Campbell (Portland State University) and
Kelsey Henderson (Portland State University), similarly attempts to identify what leads to better
attorney-client communications. This piece also introduces a novel methodological approach for
systematically assessing what are normally legally protected conversations.
The next group of articles focuses on attorneys and judges in the indigent defense system. In
'Satan's Minions' and 'True Believers': How Criminal Defense Attorneys Employ Quasi-Religious
Rhetoric and What It Suggests About Lawyering Culture, Elizabeth Webster (Loyola University),
Kathleen Powell (Drexel University), Sarah E. Lageson (Rutgers University), and Valerio Bacak
(Rutgers University) explore the effect the use of quasi-religious language by public defenders has
on their relationships with others in the criminal defense system. The study also uncovers inter-
esting links between public defender attitudes and tenure in the field. Peter Leasure (York
College), John Burrow (University of South Carolina), Gary Zhang (independent researcher), and
Hunter Boehme (North Carolina Central University) turn to the question of how attorneys give
notice, if at all, about collateral consequences in Collateral Consequences of Conviction in South
Carolina Courts: A Study of South Carolina Defense Lawyers. The final article in this section,

CONTACT Amy Steigerwalt ® asteigerwalt@gsu.edu
C 2022 National Center for State Courts