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Indigent Defense Roundup

By Steve Hall

Yesterday's Washington Post carried the editorial, "Justice's welcome push to improve legal counsel for poor defendants." THEY ARE common stories by now: The court-appointed defense lawyer who falls asleep during a client's murder trial. The beleaguered big-city public defender who barely has a chance to scan a client's file as she rushes from courtroom to courtroom, laboring under a crushing caseload. Ever since the Supreme Court's decision in Gideon v. Wainwright, poor defendants have had the right to appointed counsel if they could not afford to hire a lawyer on their own. But in the 47 years since that landmark ruling, the promise of justice has in many ways been gutted by indifference and financial neglect...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on March 10, 2010 (boomark / email).