Jonathan Rapping Explained

Jonathan A. Rapping
Birth Place:Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Nationality:American
Education:University of Chicago (A.B.)
Princeton University (M.P.A.)
George Washington University Law School (J.D.)
Occupation:President of Gideon's Promise
Known For:Founding Gideon's Promise
Spouse:Ilham Askia
Children:Aaliyah Rapping, Lucas Rapping
Parents:Elayne Rapping
Leonard Rapping
Website:Gideon's Promise

Jonathan A. Rapping is an American criminal defense attorney, founder and president of Gideon's Promise, professor of law at Atlanta's John Marshall Law School, and visiting professor of law at Harvard Law School. Rapping received the MacArthur "Genius" Award in 2014.

Rapping regularly writes about issues related to criminal defense and the criminal justice system. He is a contributor for The Nation,[1] TalkPoverty.org,[2] the National Association For Public Defense,[3] and The Huffington Post.[4] He also maintains a blog called Fulfilling the Promise: Insights to Forging a Path to Meaningful Justice Reform.[5]

Early life, family and education

Rapping grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At a young age, Rapping went to demonstrations and protests with his mother, Elayne Rapping, a community organizer, activist and professor in Pittsburgh. Rapping's mother was particularly involved in the anti-war and women's movements.[6] The experience of working with his activist mother taught Rapping about social justice, and trying to change things in the world that aren't fair or right.[6] Friends of Rapping's family were arrested and he admired the lawyers who worked to keep them out of jail.[6] After witnessing social justice activism as a young person, Rapping aspired to be a criminal defense attorney at a young age.[6]

Rapping attended Allderdice High School in Squirrel Hill, and graduated in 1984.[7] After high school, Rapping attended the University of Chicago where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics cum laude.[6] People close to Rapping convinced him that he would incur tremendous debt if he went to law school, so he worked as a research assistant with the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. for two years,[6] following in the footsteps of his father, Leonard Rapping, a well-known economist. Rapping earned a scholarship to attend the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University where he earned a Master of Public Administration in 1992.[6] Rapping's sister, Alison Rapping has spent her career in the non-profit sector, and is widely considered a leader in that realm. Both siblings attribute their commitment to social justice to the influence of their parents.

Right after graduating from Princeton and still unfulfilled, Rapping decided to attend George Washington University Law School. After his first year of law school at GWU, Rapping interned with the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, where he found his calling.[6] He worked at PDS throughout law school.[6]

While living in Washington, Rapping met and married his wife, Ilham Askia, who was teaching at an elementary school and then spent two years at a charter high school for court involved children.[6] Askia was born in Buffalo, New York and every man in her family has been a subject of the criminal justice system.[6] Askia's father went to Attica Correctional Facility when she was five years old. She helped raise her younger brother who ended up in prison.[6] Askia became a teacher to break the school-to-prison pipeline, but soon questioned how much of a difference she could make on the front end.[6] This led to her joining Rapping to start Gideon's Promise and, ultimately, to become the organization's Executive Director, where she advocates for attacking the pipeline on the back end.[8]

Legal career

Public defender

After law school, Rapping worked as a staff attorney for The Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (1995–2004), where he served his final three years as training director.[9] From 2004-2006, Rapping was the training director for the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council.[9]

From 2006-2007, he served as training chief for the New Orleans Office of the Public Defender.[9] In recognition of his work in New Orleans to rebuild the public defender system post-Hurricane Katrina, he was a co-recipient of the Lincoln Leadership Award, given by Kentucky's Department of Public Advocacy to honor leadership in national efforts to improve indigent defense.

Gideon's Promise

In 2007, Rapping created the Southern Public Defender Training Center, subsequently renamed Gideon's Promise, along with his wife, Ilham Askia. Named after the landmark 1963 Supreme Court case Gideon v. Wainwright, Gideon's Promise teaches public defenders to work more effectively within the judicial system by providing coaching, training, and professional development as well as a supportive network of peers and mentors from around the country. Rapping received a grant to help start the center from George Soros' Open Society Foundations.[10]

Since its founding, the organization has grown from a single training program for sixteen attorneys in two offices in Georgia and Louisiana, to a multi-tiered enterprise with over 300 participants in more than 35 offices across 15 mostly Southern states. An initial three-year "Core" program for new public defenders has since expanded into a comprehensive model that includes programs for graduates of the initial Core program as they continue their development, public defender leaders, trainers and supervisors, and law students. Further, the organization is unique in that it intervenes at the trial stage, rather than after conviction, where challenges to criminal injustice often take place.[9]

In 2013, HBO Films produced a documentary called Gideon's Army, based in part on the Gideon's Promise program and highlighting participants in the program.

Gideon's Promise has won numerous awards including Emory University's 2014 Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Service Award,[11] the Southern Center for Human Rights' 2013 Gideon's Promise Award,[12] The National Association of Sentencing Advocates and Mitigation Specialists 2013 Sentencing Project Award, and the American College of Trail Lawyers' 2011 Emil Gumpert Award.

In 2014, Rapping became the Director of Strategic Planning and Organizational Development for the Maryland Office of the Public Defender. In 2014, Rapping earned a MacArthur Foundation "Genius Fellow."[13]

Law professor

Since 2007, Rapping has also been an associate professor at Atlanta's John Marshall Law School.[9] In 2015 he was promoted to full Professor. Rapping is also a visiting associate professor of law at Harvard Law School.[14] In 2009, Rapping was selected as one of Harvard Law School's Wasserstein Public Interest Fellows in recognition of his contribution to the public interest legal arena.[14] In 2013, Rapping was the Public Interest Scholar in Residence at Touro Law Center.[15]

Writings and views

Rapping has been a leading voice in discussing how culture shapes our criminal justice system. He has written and talked extensively about the culture of criminal justice, has theorized how criminal justice reform can be accomplished through cultural transformation, and through his work with Gideon's Promise, has applied his ideas to build a movement of public defenders to drive criminal justice reform. He is a thought leader in articulating the critical role public defenders must play in any comprehensive criminal justice reform strategy. His work in this area earned him a 2014 MacArthur "Genius" grant.

Rapping first applied organizational culture theory to indigent defense reform in his 2007 article, Directing the Winds of Change. In 2009, he laid out a vision for how to put this theory to practice in describing the work of the Southern Public Defender Training Center (the precursor to Gideon's Promise) in You Can't Build on Shaky Ground. He made the case that supporting public defenders in their quest to drive cultural transformation should be a priority of the United States federal government in National Crisis, National Neglect. And in 2012—applying his work to prosecutors in Who's Guarding the Henhouse—he examined how prosecutors too have been shaped by the existing criminal justice culture and, as a result, help perpetuate injustice.

Believing that well-intentioned professionals are shaped by a criminal justice system that has become unmoored from is foundational values, Rapping's vision involves supporting defenders as they struggle to resist the pressure to adapt to the status quo. This vision is best articulated in his article "Redefining Success as a Public Defender" and in a speech he delivered at Touro Law School.[16]

He has examined how the American story of justice has evolved to a narrative that would be unrecognizable to our founding fathers in "Reviving the Hero Image of the Public Defender." He has analyzed how defenders can combat the pernicious role of race in driving this culture in "Implicitly Unjust." And in "Retuning Gideon's Trumpet," he answers skeptics who believe public defenders are only important to individuals and play no role in driving systemic reform.

Rapping frequently addresses criminal justice issues of the day by promoting a narrative in which a movement of public defenders, serving as the voice for the vast majority of people in the criminal justice system, serve as the catalyst for reform. As the nation grappled with a seeming epidemic of police killings of young black men like Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice, Rapping urged that we not see that issue as disconnected from "routine injustice" destroying poor communities of color every day. In "It's Not Just the Cops" and "From Ferguson to Staten Island: In Case Anyone Doubted the Public Needs Defending," he argues that public defenders are a necessary component to a comprehensive strategy to realize equal justice that is illusive throughout the criminal justice system. In "The Other Baltimore Story," he makes a similar argument as the nation focused its attention on the killing of Freddy Gray by reminding us of the routine injustice in Baltimore through the story of Ronald Hammond, and the response of public defenders.

In articles like "Continuing the March of Civil Rights Warriors in Selma," "One of the Most Important Civil and Human Rights Battles of Our Time," and "Redefining Success as a Public Defender," Rapping makes the case that criminal justice is the civil rights struggle of this generation and that public defenders are on the front lines of that battle.

He routinely tips his hat to the men and women who represent poor people accused of crimes, particularly in essays like "Reviving the Hero Image of the Public Defender By Changing the Story of Our Clients," "To All the Patriots Out There, and Especially Our Public Defenders," and "Gideon's Orchestra: It's Time For the Encore." And in pieces like "The Special Few" and "Who Will Heal the Public Defenders," he explains the emotional toll that makes this work so difficult.

Rapping's 2015 TEDx Atlanta talk[17] is a powerful articulation of the critical role of culture in shaping our criminal justice system and the importance of a public defender movement to transforming it.

External links

Film and video features

Speeches and presentations

Television and radio features

Print media features

Contributions to scholarly and professional journals

Other writings

Awards and recognition

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Jonathan Rapping. The Nation. 12 January 2015. 20 October 2015.
  2. Web site: Jonathan Rapping Archives - Talk Poverty. Talk Poverty. 20 October 2015.
  3. Web site: jon.rapping - National Association for Public Defense. publicdefenders.us. 20 October 2015.
  4. Web site: Jonathan Rapping. huffingtonpost.com. 20 October 2015.
  5. Web site: Jon Rapping. 20 October 2015. 11 November 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151111221343/http://www.jonrapping.com/. dead.
  6. Web site: Rosen. Karen. Transforming Public Defense. Atlanta Trend. 29 May 2015.
  7. Web site: Branddolph. Adam. Professor, lawyer with Pittsburgh ties earn MacArthur 'genius grants' . triblive.com. 29 May 2015.
  8. Gideon's Promise receives 2015 MLK, Jr. Community Service Award. 29 January 2015. YouTube. 20 October 2015.
  9. Web site: MacArthur Fellows / Meet the Class of 2014. macfound.org. MacArthur Foundation. 22 January 2015.
  10. Web site: Over $1 Million Awarded to Visionary Leaders in Criminal Justice. Open Society Foundations.
  11. Web site: Emory honors MLK legacy with service, awards, special events. emory.edu. 14 January 2015. 20 October 2015.
  12. Web site: SCHR to Honor Justice Harold Clarke with Lifetime Achievement Award. schr.org. 20 October 2015. 5 March 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160305214615/https://www.schr.org/action/resources/schr_to_honor_justice_harold_clarke_with_lifetime_achievement_award. dead.
  13. Web site: Miller. Michelle. Atlanta lawyer Jonathan Rapping wins MacArthur 'genius grant'. ajc.com. AJC. 22 January 2015.
  14. Web site: Harvard Bio for Rapping. harvard.edu. Harvard University. 22 January 2015. 22 January 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150122060314/http://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/11243/Rapping. dead.
  15. Web site: Touro Law Center. Distinguished Public Interest Lawyer in Residence Program. 17 September 2014.
  16. Jonathan Rapping - Touro Law - 2013 Public Interest Lawyer in Residence - Public Speech. 16 October 2013. YouTube. 20 October 2015.
  17. Building a new generation of public defenders - Jonathan Rapping - TEDxAtlanta. 8 May 2015. YouTube. 20 October 2015.
  18. Web site: Gideon's Army . Gideonsarmythefilm.com . 2015-10-20 . 2015-09-05 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150905154209/http://gideonsarmythefilm.com/ . dead .
  19. Web site: Defending Gideon . The Constitution Project . 1963-03-18 . 2015-10-20.
  20. News: Dawn Porter . True Believers in Justice - Video . . 24 January 2013 . 2015-10-20.
  21. Meet Gideon's Promise, the organization behind Gideon's Army. 21 May 2014. YouTube. 20 October 2015.
  22. Web site: Video of Jonathan Rapping Speech from 2014 Celebrating Service Luncheon - Atlanta Bar Association. www.atlantabar.org. 2016-01-15. 2015-09-06. https://web.archive.org/web/20150906054518/http://www.atlantabar.org/news/200634/Video-of-Jonathan-Rapping-Speech-from-2014-Celebrating-Service-Luncheon.htm. dead.
  23. Web site: Criminalization Of Poverty - The Kojo Nnamdi Show. The Kojo Nnamdi Show. 2016-01-15. en-US.
  24. Web site: Public Defenders And The Legacy Of Gideon Vs. Wainwright - The Kojo Nnamdi Show. The Kojo Nnamdi Show. 2016-01-15. en-US.
  25. Web site: Defense Mode: Gideon's Promise Aims To Change The Face of Criminal Justice. Essence.com. 2016-01-15.
  26. Web site: Criminal injustice The University of Chicago Magazine. mag.uchicago.edu. 2016-01-15.
  27. Web site: Promise Keeper GW Magazine The George Washington University. magazine.gwu.edu. 2016-01-15. 2016-01-20. https://web.archive.org/web/20160120203604/http://magazine.gwu.edu/promise-keeper. dead.
  28. Web site: Jonathan Rapping: The defender. Creative Loafing Atlanta. 2016-01-15.
  29. News: Jonathan Rapping helps give poor and minority Americans a strong defense in court. Christian Science Monitor. 2016-01-15. 0882-7729. Patrik. Jonsson.
  30. Web site: Jonathan Rapping Executive Profile ATLANTA TREND. atlantatrend.org. 2016-01-15.
  31. 2621702. Grooming Tomorrow's Change Agents: The Role of Law Schools in Helping to Create a Just Society. Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law. 12. 465. 22 June 2015. Rapping. Jonathan.
  32. Rapping. Jonathan. The Revolution Will Be Televised: Popular Culture and the American Criminal Justice Narrative. 2567795. 20 February 2015. New England Journal on Criminal and Civil Confinement.
  33. 2439431. Retuning Gideon's Trumpet: Retelling the Story in the Context of Today's Criminal Justice Crisis. Texas Law Review. 92. 1225. 20 May 2014. Rapping. Jonathan.
  34. 2466200. Reclaiming Our Rightful Place: Reviving the Hero Image of the Public Defender. Iowa Law Review. 99. 14 July 2014 . Rapping . Jonathan .
  35. Web site: ESSENTIALS TO JUSTICE: A RIGHT TO COUNSEL SYMPOSIUM: WHAT DOES A CLIENT HAVE THE RIGHT TO DEMAND? *. lexisnexis.com. 20 October 2015. 29 May 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150529001726/https://litigation-essentials.lexisnexis.com/webcd/app?action=DocumentDisplay&crawlid=1&doctype=cite&docid=10+Tenn.+J.+L.+%26+Pol%27y+113&srctype=smi&srcid=3B15&key=30be9e9311e865e5795c94859cbde859. dead.
  36. 2380002. Implicitly Unjust: How Defenders Can Affect Systemic Racist Assumptions. Legislation and Public Policy. 16. 999. 16 January 2014 . Rapping . Jonathan .
  37. 2082392. Who's Guarding the Henhouse? How the American Prosecutor Came to Devour Those He is Sworn to Protect. Washburn Law Journal. 51. 10 June 2012 . Rapping . Jonathan .
  38. 2128829. Redefining Success as a Public Defender: A Rallying Cry for Those Most Committed to Gideon's Promise. The Champion, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. 5 June 2012 .
  39. 2082421. Street Crimes, Stress, and Suggestion: Helping the Jury See What the Witness Did Not. The Champion. June 2011 .
  40. 1745482. National Crisis, National Neglect: Realizing Justice Through Transformative Change. Journal of Law and Social Change. 13. 331. 22 February 2010 .
  41. 1629190. Evidence Blocking: How the Defense Can Define the Legal Landscape at Trial. American Journal of Trial Advocacy. 33. 1. 23 June 2010 .
  42. 1349382. You Can't Build on Shaky Ground: Laying the Foundation for Indigent Defense Reform through Values-Based Recruitment, Training, and Mentoring. Harvard Law and Policy Review, Forthcoming. 25 February 2009 .
  43. A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words : Persuasion Through the Use of Visual Effects at Trial . The Advocate . 31 . October 2009 . Apps.dpa.ky.gov . 2015-10-20 . 2016-03-03 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160303234827/http://apps.dpa.ky.gov/library/advocate/pdf/2009/Oct09%20Advo.pdf . dead .
  44. Rapping. Jonathan. Directing the Winds of Change: Using Organizational Culture to Reform Indigent Defense. 1349358. Loyola Journal of Public Interest Law. 9. 177. 25 February 2009 .
  45. Building a Relationship with your Client : Juvenile Sexual Offenders : Should There Be Changes in the Laws? . The Advocate . 27 . November 2005 . Apps.dpa.ky.gov . 2015-10-20 . 2016-03-03 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160303235310/http://apps.dpa.ky.gov/library/advocate/pdf/2005/adv112005.pdf . dead .
  46. Web site: Jon Rapping. 20 October 2015. 11 November 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151111221343/http://www.jonrapping.com/#!THE-LIMITATION-OF-POLICY-FIXES-REAL-CRIMINAL-JUSTICE-REFORM-REQUIRES-THAT-WE-CHANGE-HOW-WE-THINK-ABOUT-JUSTICE/c1tye/556f275c0cf24a19837a0fbf. dead.
  47. Web site: Nonprofit Voice - Gideon's Promise works to ensure equal justice for all - The Georgia Center For Nonprofits. gcn.org. 21 May 2015. 20 October 2015. 24 September 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150924021101/http://www.gcn.org/blog/Nonprofit-Voice/Nonprofit-Voice-Gideons-Promise-works-to-ensure-equal-justice-for-all. dead.
  48. The Other Baltimore Story: Ronald Hammond and 'Routine Injustice'. The Nation. 15 May 2015. 20 October 2015. Rapping. Jonathan.
  49. Web site: Jon Rapping. 20 October 2015. 11 November 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151111221343/http://www.jonrapping.com/#!Challenging-JudgeCentered-Culture/c1tye/551c19ce0cf21933cd2bccad. dead.
  50. Web site: Mississippi Judge Bars Public Defenders from Representing Clients. Talk Poverty. 20 March 2015. 20 October 2015.
  51. Web site: Jon Rapping. 20 October 2015. 11 November 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151111221343/http://www.jonrapping.com/#!Indigent-Defense-is-History/c1tye/550998a30cf2393ebb2ce021. dead.
  52. Web site: Forgive Yourself Without Becoming Complacent; Dream Without Becoming Discouraged. publicdefenders.us. 20 October 2015.
  53. Web site: Continuing the March of the Civil Rights Warriors in Selma. Talk Poverty. 4 February 2015. 20 October 2015.
  54. It's Not Just the Cops. The Nation. 12 January 2015. 20 October 2015. Rapping. Jonathan.
  55. Web site: Need a Lawyer? Sell Everything - Talk Poverty. Talk Poverty. 15 December 2014. 20 October 2015.
  56. Web site: Ferguson and Staten Island: In case anyone doubted the public needs defending…. publicdefenders.us. 20 October 2015.
  57. Web site: Civil and Human Rights Battles of Our Time. Talk Poverty. 10 November 2014. 20 October 2015.
  58. Web site: Reviving the Hero Image of the Public Defender by Changing the Story of Our Clients. publicdefenders.us. 20 October 2015.
  59. Web site: To All the Patriots Out There, and Especially Our Public Defenders. publicdefenders.us. 20 October 2015.
  60. Web site: Gideon's Orchestra: It Is Time For the Encore. publicdefenders.us. 20 October 2015.
  61. Web site: The Special Few. publicdefenders.us. 20 October 2015.
  62. Web site: Can We Be Committed to Both the Client and the Cause? Promoting Racial Justice Through Individual Representation | National Association for Public Defense . Publicdefenders.us . 2014-01-20 . 2015-10-20.
  63. Web site: You Can't Get Upstream Without Swimming Against the Current. publicdefenders.us. 20 October 2015.
  64. Web site: Who Will Heal the Public Defenders?. publicdefenders.us. 20 October 2015.
  65. Web site: Champion - Racial Disparities. nacdl.org. 20 October 2015. 4 March 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304071737/http://www.nacdl.org/champion/racialdisparities/. dead.
  66. Web site: Justice Watch: GUEST POST: The dog sniff cases: Amidst a sigh of relief, additional burden for public defenders. afjjusticewatch.blogspot.com. 28 March 2013. 20 October 2015.
  67. Web site: A Promise Worth Keeping: Restoring Fairness to America's Justice System. The Huffington Post. 18 March 2013. 20 October 2015.
  68. Web site: Champion - Book Review: Case Analysis: Winning Hard Cases Against the Odds . Nacdl.org . 2015-10-20.
  69. Web site: Jonathan Rapping. macfound.org. 20 October 2015.
  70. Web site: Jonathan Rapping: The defender. Creative Loafing Atlanta. 20 October 2015.
  71. Web site: Jonathan Rapping. Purpose Economy. 20 October 2015. 4 March 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304040825/http://purposeeconomy.com/portfolio/rapping/. dead.
  72. Web site: Inspire! Awards Honor Those Dedicated to Indigent Defense | Cardozo Law . Cardozo.yu.edu . 2014-01-30 . 2015-10-20 . 2015-09-07 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150907234126/https://cardozo.yu.edu/news/inspire-awards-honor-those-dedicated-indigent-defense . dead .
  73. Web site: Touro Law - Distinguished Public Interest Lawyer in Residence Program NY . Tourolaw.edu . 2015-10-20.
  74. Web site: Wasserstein Fellows | Harvard Law School . Law.harvard.edu . 2014-06-23 . 2015-10-20.
  75. Web site: Over $1 Million Awarded to Visionary Leaders in Criminal Justice | Open Society Foundations (OSF) . Open Society Foundations . 2007-02-20 . 2015-10-20.

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