Carlos J. Martinez has dedicated his professional life to public service, using his legal talents in service of the poor. He arrived to Miami from Cuba on a 1969 Freedom Flight. Carlos learned the meaning of hard work and determination at an early age. Since he was 10 years old until he began working at gas stations, Carlos often helped his dad, Celedonio, after school. Carlos would mop floors and clean the Little Havana church where his father worked as a maintenance man and where his mother, Yara, was the church’s receptionist.

Carlos credits his parents and his religious upbringing for his passion for social justice and for helping the poor. “I am living my American dream. I am doing something I love. I am fortunate to work in an office with highly dedicated individuals where we can help people who are less fortunate and whose freedom and future well-being is in jeopardy. By serving as the Public Defender, I’m honoring my mother and father’s values and the sacrifices they made for us to live and prosper in a free country.”

At 16, Carlos was hired as a car wash attendant at an Exxon station. Within three years, Carlos was simultaneously managing six gas stations in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. He worked full-time to pay for his undergraduate college education. He attended Miami Dade College, the University of Texas-Austin and graduated from Florida International University with a B.A. in Political Science in 1985. In 1990, Carlos received his J.D. from the University of Miami.

Carlos represented indigent clients at the trial and appellate level in Miami-Dade, Florida and Bellingham, Washington. Before becoming the Public Defender, Carlos was a top administrator in the Public Defender’s office for 12 years and led litigation efforts, designed and implemented management and legal reforms, and drafted legislation and grant proposals.

He was elected public defender in 2008, and re-elected in 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024 without opposition. Carlos is the first Cuban-American Public Defender and the only elected Hispanic public defender in the U.S. As public defender, Carlos manages an office of about 400 employees, handling approximately 75,000 cases each year.

“Fighting for individual rights and equal justice, for the downtrodden, the despised, the voiceless and the invisible, has not just given me great professional satisfaction, it has given meaning to my life,” Carlos said.

Carlos created volunteer initiatives such as the “Redemption Project” (helping former clients regain their civil and employment rights), “Play It Smart” (teaching young people how to interact with law enforcement), “Consequences Aren’t Minor” (educating adolescents and adults about the direct and collateral consequences of illegal behavior and arrest), the Equal Justice Roundtable (a faith community collaboration to address social injustice and improve public safety), a statewide public defender management training program, and Juvenile Justice CPR (Charting a Path to Redemption), a legal reform initiative designed to help troubled kids achieve the American dream. Carlos led the statewide effort to ban the indiscriminate shackling of detained children in juvenile courts. He has worked tirelessly to address the crisis of minority children being cycled from the schoolhouse to the jail house, and to protect the confidentiality of juvenile records.