Professor John P. Gross prepared Representation in All Criminal Prosecutions: The Right to Counsel in State Courts, a report released this week by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
The report surveys the standards set by each of the 50 states to provide counsel in criminal cases to those who cannot afford to pay for a lawyer and examines how states have designed their public defense policies in light of Gideon v. Wainwright and other Supreme Court cases interpreting the Sixth Amendment’s mandate. This is the third report in NACDL’s series Gideon at 50: A Three-Part Examination of Public Defense in America.
“While previous reports have documented the lack of funding for public defense and the systemic denial of counsel based on unrealistic income eligibility guidelines, this report reveals that many state courts and legislatures have created the framework to fulfill Gideon‘s noble ideal, that no one charged with a crime should be without counsel,” Gross said. “The Supreme Court’s fear that extending the right to counsel to defendants charged with petty crimes would overwhelm the states has proven to be unfounded. In fact, many states have, at least in theory if not in practice, gone beyond the actual incarceration standard and require the appointment of counsel in all criminal cases. The decision to provide counsel in all criminal cases, even those that will not result in incarceration, appears to be rooted in the recognition that defense counsel is needed to ensure due process and that the collateral consequences of a conviction are just as significant, if not more so, than spending a day in jail.”
For more, read Part One, Rationing Justice: The Underfunding of Assigned Counsel Systems, and Part Two, Redefining Indigence: Financial Eligibility Guidelines for Assigned Counsel. All of the reports are available at www.nacdl.org/gideonat50.