America's Continuing Quest
for Equal Justice
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Indigent Defense
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The landmark 1963 U.S. Supreme Court decision Gideon v. Wainwright, which established the right to counsel in criminal cases,
caused the most significant transformation in American criminal justice history: recognition that every defendant, whether
wealthy or poor, is guaranteed the right to a lawyer. But more than forty years after the Gideon decision, the American justice
system is still failing to protect the rights and liberty of the nation's poorest defendants.
A new report by the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants reveals that in recent
years the mounting evidence of wrongful convictions proves that the phenomenon is much more common than once believed, with one
study putting the number potentially as high as 10,000 annually nationwide.
Contact: Barbara Power
- Phone: (312) 988-6147
