Michigan State Appellate Defender Office and Criminal Defense Resource Center

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Seeking Mitigation Interns for Summer 2022

Apply before March 1, 2022

SADO is an appellate public defender office working statewide to address injustices and disparities in the criminal legal system based on race, class, ability, and other characteristics. SADO’s Juvenile Lifer Unit (JLU) is accepting applications for Mitigation Interns for the summer of 2022. Read More

Do you have a conviction for failing to register under SORA?

The State Appellate Defender Office is starting a project to work with eligible people to vacate failure to register convictions under the Michigan Supreme Court's decision in Betts and the federal Does litigation. Whether a conviction can be vacated is fact-dependent. Generally, you will be eligible if the underlying sex offense took place before July 1, 2011 and you either violated the safety zones or you violated the 2011 version of SORA. Read More

SADO Seeks Summer Interns

The Michigan State Appellate Defender Office (SADO) seeks first and second-year law students committed to public service, racial equity, and social justice to join our Summer Internship Program. SADO provides representation to poor people who appeal their state criminal convictions and those sentenced to juvenile life without parole in resentencing proceedings pursuant to the United States Supreme Court’s decisions in Miller v Alabama (2012) and Montgomery v Louisiana (2016). Read More

MAACS and SADO Receive Federal Grant to Launch Juvenile Defense Project

The United States Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has awarded a three-year federal grant to the Michigan Appellate Assigned Counsel System (MAACS), a division of the State Appellate Defender Office (SADO), to establish a Juvenile Defense Project in Michigan. The grant will fund the design, implementation, and oversight of a statewide roster of attorneys to represent children appealing their juvenile adjudications under the direction of a full-time Project Director and volunteer Advisory Board.  Read More

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This project was funded by the Byrne JAG grant #2010-DJ-BX-0003, awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and administered by the Michigan state Police (MSP). Points of view or opinions contained within this document do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the MSP or DOJ.