The legal case involving Clarence Earl Gideon, the man at the center of Gideon v. Wainwright, had far-reaching ramifications, as the Supreme Court’s decision ensured every person charged with a crime has legal counsel.
Yet 50 years later, a growing chorus of our best legal minds says the time has come to revamp America’s public defender system.
Even today advocates assert some defendants — particularly those charged with misdemeanors — are not assigned attorneys, and others are essentially placed on a “guilty-as-charged” assembly line by overworked and underpaid public defenders.
The group includes former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Sue Bell Cobb, former Vice President Walter Mondale, New York indigent legal services director William Leahy, and Equal Justice Initiative Director Bryan Stevenson. They are pushing the current U.S. Administration to create a National Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice for the Indigent Accused.
Among their suggestions, according to National Public Radio are two that could change the way indigent criminals are treated. One is to reduce the use of cash bail as the indigent might not be able to post bond and the second measure is to appoint attorneys earlier in the process.
Other proposed changes include ensuring defenders act independently; adjudicating minor and non-violent cases through treatment courts or diversionary programs; and counselling defendants on the impact of agreeing to waive their rights. Public defenders from 47 states also have taken up the call, writing letters to Attorney General Eric Holder asking that the U.S. Justice Department address the issue.
“The right to counsel is a precious right that goes to the core of who we are as a people,” Mondale’s group wrote in a letter to Holder.