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Slate Article Describes My Daily Struggle

Gotta check this article out:Gideon's SilenceWhatever happened to the right to counsel?By Alexandra NatapoffPosted Wednesday, May 31, 2006, at 5:35 PM ET Judge Arthur L. Hunter Jr. is fed up. The complete destruction of the public-defender system has left more than 1,000 people sitting in soggy New Orleans jails without access to lawyers. So, Judge Hunter, a former police officer, is suspending prosecutions and setting defendants free. In the words of last week's New York Times, "alone among a dozen criminal court judges, he has granted a petition to free a prisoner facing serious charges without counsel, and is considering others." Judge Hunter is responding to a hidden reality of the American criminal-justice system as a whole: Without defense counsel it grinds to a screeching halt...continue to full post

Full post as published by Defending Those People on June 05, 2006 (boomark / email).