Gideon v. Wainwright Turns 50
Today marks the 50th anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright, a historic ruling establishing that all defendants have a constitutional right to an attorney – even those without the funds to afford one. This landmark case, decided on March 18, 1963, put a spotlight on the American criminal justice system and its ability to adequately ensure a fair trial for the accused. Fifty years later, tax-payer funded public defender offices are struggling to handle crippling caseloads and quality of representation is suffering. Public interest lawyers committed to indigent defense often find themselves “fixing” this broken system – struggling to ensure equality and fairness despite financial burdens and marginalization of the work itself.
If you want to learn more about the case and its modern implications, check out the documentary film Gideon’s Army, which shows the inadequacies of the indigent defense system and the underfunded public interest lawyers defending not only the accused, but the constitutional rights guaranteed in this landmark case. Gideon’s Army premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival and was honored with the documentary editing award.
If you want to know even more about Gideon v. Wainwright, browse through The Atlantic’s guide to books and movies that will help you understand the case. You can also take a look at NPR’s piece on Gideon‘s anniversary.
Organizations like Gideon’s Promise and Equal Justice Work’s Public Defender Corps have tried to combat the growing problem of underfunded indigent defense offices and insurmountable caseloads by recruiting, training and mentoring new attorneys, but funding remains an obstacle. What are some other ways of ensuring the constitutional guarantees laid out in Gideon? The U.S. is certainly having no shortage of attorneys, so could there be a solution waiting in the pools of unemployed recent law graduates?