Crime

(DETROIT) – This evening, Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) gave the keynote address at an event in Detroit honoring the work of Gideon’s Promise, an organization working to recruit and train public defenders. The event comes on the heels of the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s historic ruling in Gideon v. Wainwright, in which the Court held that state courts are required to provide a... Read more »

Fifty years ago, the United States Supreme Court decided, in a landmark unanimous ruling, that under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment state courts are required to provide an attorney for defendants in criminal cases who are unable to afford legal counsel. This requirement already existed under the 6th Amendment at the federal level, but was groundbreaking for extending the right to co... Read more »

Today, Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) attended the President’s signing ceremony for the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (VAWA). Last Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 286 to 138, with 87 House Republicans breaking with their party, to pass the bipartisan version of VAWA that passed the Senate overwhelmingly by a vote of 78 to 22. The Senate version of VA... Read more »

Today, Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), along with other members of the House Democratic Caucus, participated in a Democratic Issues Conference in Leesburg, Virginia which included addresses by President Obama and Vice President Biden. At this conference, the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, created by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and chaired by Congressman Mike Thompso... Read more »