Hon. Carlos J. Martinez, the Public Defender for the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida, manages the largest Public Defender's Office in Florida, with a $42 million budget and 400 employees handling approximately 65,000 cases each year. He has 30 years of management experience both in the Public Defender's office, as well as in private enterprise prior to law school.
Mr. Martinez represented thousands of clients charged with felonies and misdemeanors before working as an administrator. Mr. Martinez represented clients in Miami's drug court, and served on the committee of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals that wrote
Defining Drug Courts: The Key Components. He instituted the "Redemption Project" in 1998 to help former clients/returning citizens with sealing, expungement and rights restoration.
Mr. Martinez is the chair of the Miami-Dade Public Safety Coordinating Council. He was recently the President of the Florida Public Defender Association and served on the Supreme Court of Florida's Judicial Circuit Assessment Committee, The Florida Bar Board of Governors as the government lawyer liaison and the Miami-Dade County Driver's License Suspension Task Force. He was Vice-President of the National Association for Public Defense and served on the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution's Executive Session on Rethinking the Role of the Prosecutor in the Community. He also served on Florida Blueprint Commission on Juvenile Justice, The Florida Bar's Commission on the Legal Needs of Children, on two Supreme Court of Florida Steering Committees, the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice Zero Tolerance Task Force, and on Miami Dade County's Blue Ribbon Panel on Ex-Offender Re-Entry. He co-authored
Prosecution and Public Defense: The Prosecutor's Role in Securing a Meaningful Right to an Attorney and
The Best Defense Is No Offense: Preventing Crime Through Effective Public Defense. He served on technical assistance and training teams assessing public defense management of the Honduran National Office of Public Defense, and the Public Defender Offices in Schenectady County (New York), San Bernardino County (California), Maricopa County (Arizona), and Marion County (Indiana).
