Non-Capital Homicide/Sex Offense Bring Your Own Case Training

Many of PDAP’s recurring trainings follow BYOC (“Bring Your Own Case”) formats. Participants are asked to bring active cases that they will workshop alongside our faculty and their fellow Public Defenders. The BYOC Non-Capital Homicide Training and BYOC Sex Offense training alternate every year, allowing participants to engage in an advanced version of the annual Trial Skills BYOC training.

Both conferences reinforce the “story of the case” unifying field theory, which premises the defense on a story of innocence or reduced culpability. The trainings are intended for entire public defense teams to attend so they can all learn to utilize this method in every part of the trial. Both conferences feature plenary sessions that teach skills like brainstorming the story of the case, analyzing forensic data and evidence, filing motions, conducting voir dire, and more. Defense teams then get a chance to apply that learned knowledge to their real cases, receiving feedback from their colleagues and instructors in the process.

This year’s Non-Capital Homicide BYOC will take place on May 11th-13th.