Author: Sara Mayeux
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469656035
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 287
Book Description
Every day, in courtrooms around the United States, thousands of criminal defendants are represented by public defenders--lawyers provided by the government for those who cannot afford private counsel. Though often taken for granted, the modern American public defender has a surprisingly contentious history--one that offers insights not only about the "carceral state," but also about the contours and compromises of twentieth-century liberalism. First gaining appeal amidst the Progressive Era fervor for court reform, the public defender idea was swiftly quashed by elite corporate lawyers who believed the legal profession should remain independent from the state. Public defenders took hold in some localities but not yet as a nationwide standard. By the 1960s, views had shifted. Gideon v. Wainwright enshrined the right to counsel into law and the legal profession mobilized to expand the ranks of public defenders nationwide. Yet within a few years, lawyers had already diagnosed a "crisis" of underfunded, overworked defenders providing inadequate representation--a crisis that persists today. This book shows how these conditions, often attributed to recent fiscal emergencies, have deep roots, and it chronicles the intertwined histories of constitutional doctrine, big philanthropy, professional in-fighting, and Cold War culture that made public defenders ubiquitous but embattled figures in American courtrooms.
Free Justice
Author: Sara Mayeux
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469656035
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 287
Book Description
Every day, in courtrooms around the United States, thousands of criminal defendants are represented by public defenders--lawyers provided by the government for those who cannot afford private counsel. Though often taken for granted, the modern American public defender has a surprisingly contentious history--one that offers insights not only about the "carceral state," but also about the contours and compromises of twentieth-century liberalism. First gaining appeal amidst the Progressive Era fervor for court reform, the public defender idea was swiftly quashed by elite corporate lawyers who believed the legal profession should remain independent from the state. Public defenders took hold in some localities but not yet as a nationwide standard. By the 1960s, views had shifted. Gideon v. Wainwright enshrined the right to counsel into law and the legal profession mobilized to expand the ranks of public defenders nationwide. Yet within a few years, lawyers had already diagnosed a "crisis" of underfunded, overworked defenders providing inadequate representation--a crisis that persists today. This book shows how these conditions, often attributed to recent fiscal emergencies, have deep roots, and it chronicles the intertwined histories of constitutional doctrine, big philanthropy, professional in-fighting, and Cold War culture that made public defenders ubiquitous but embattled figures in American courtrooms.
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469656035
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 287
Book Description
Every day, in courtrooms around the United States, thousands of criminal defendants are represented by public defenders--lawyers provided by the government for those who cannot afford private counsel. Though often taken for granted, the modern American public defender has a surprisingly contentious history--one that offers insights not only about the "carceral state," but also about the contours and compromises of twentieth-century liberalism. First gaining appeal amidst the Progressive Era fervor for court reform, the public defender idea was swiftly quashed by elite corporate lawyers who believed the legal profession should remain independent from the state. Public defenders took hold in some localities but not yet as a nationwide standard. By the 1960s, views had shifted. Gideon v. Wainwright enshrined the right to counsel into law and the legal profession mobilized to expand the ranks of public defenders nationwide. Yet within a few years, lawyers had already diagnosed a "crisis" of underfunded, overworked defenders providing inadequate representation--a crisis that persists today. This book shows how these conditions, often attributed to recent fiscal emergencies, have deep roots, and it chronicles the intertwined histories of constitutional doctrine, big philanthropy, professional in-fighting, and Cold War culture that made public defenders ubiquitous but embattled figures in American courtrooms.
Gideon's Promise
Author: Jonathan Rapping
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 0807064629
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 250
Book Description
A blueprint for criminal justice reform that lays the foundation for how model public defense programs should work to end mass incarceration. Combining wisdom drawn from over a dozen years as a public defender and cutting-edge research in the fields of organizational and cultural psychology, Jonathan Rapping proposes a radical cultural shift to a “fiercely client-based ethos” driven by values-based recruitment training, awakening defenders to their role in upholding an unjust status quo, and a renewed pride in the essential role of moral lawyering in a democratic society. Public defenders represent over 80% of those who interact with the court system, a disproportionate number of whom are poor, non-white citizens who rely on them to navigate the law on their behalf. More often than not, even the most well-meaning of those defenders are over-worked, under-funded, and incentivized to put the interests of judges and politicians above those of their clients in a culture that beats the passion out of talented, driven advocates, and has led to an embarrassingly low standard of justice for those who depend on the promises of Gideon v. Wainwright. However, rather than arguing for a change in rules that govern the actions of lawyers, judges, and other advocates, Rapping proposes a radical cultural shift to a “fiercely client-based ethos” driven by values-based recruitment and training, awakening defenders to their role in upholding an unjust status quo, and a renewed pride in the essential role of moral lawyering in a democratic society. Through the story of founding Gideon’s Promise and anecdotes of his time as a defender and teacher, Rapping reanimates the possibility of public defenders serving as a radical bulwark against government oppression and a megaphone to amplify the voices of those they serve.
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 0807064629
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 250
Book Description
A blueprint for criminal justice reform that lays the foundation for how model public defense programs should work to end mass incarceration. Combining wisdom drawn from over a dozen years as a public defender and cutting-edge research in the fields of organizational and cultural psychology, Jonathan Rapping proposes a radical cultural shift to a “fiercely client-based ethos” driven by values-based recruitment training, awakening defenders to their role in upholding an unjust status quo, and a renewed pride in the essential role of moral lawyering in a democratic society. Public defenders represent over 80% of those who interact with the court system, a disproportionate number of whom are poor, non-white citizens who rely on them to navigate the law on their behalf. More often than not, even the most well-meaning of those defenders are over-worked, under-funded, and incentivized to put the interests of judges and politicians above those of their clients in a culture that beats the passion out of talented, driven advocates, and has led to an embarrassingly low standard of justice for those who depend on the promises of Gideon v. Wainwright. However, rather than arguing for a change in rules that govern the actions of lawyers, judges, and other advocates, Rapping proposes a radical cultural shift to a “fiercely client-based ethos” driven by values-based recruitment and training, awakening defenders to their role in upholding an unjust status quo, and a renewed pride in the essential role of moral lawyering in a democratic society. Through the story of founding Gideon’s Promise and anecdotes of his time as a defender and teacher, Rapping reanimates the possibility of public defenders serving as a radical bulwark against government oppression and a megaphone to amplify the voices of those they serve.
Indefensible
Author: David Feige
Publisher: Little Brown & Company
ISBN: 9780316156233
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
With verve and insider know-how, a young lawyer reveals his outrageous and heartbreaking long day's journey into night court.
Publisher: Little Brown & Company
ISBN: 9780316156233
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
With verve and insider know-how, a young lawyer reveals his outrageous and heartbreaking long day's journey into night court.
Defending the Damned
Author: Kevin Davis
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743270940
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 324
Book Description
Award-winning journalist Davis spent a year in Chicago's Cook County Public Defender's office for this look into the American justice system. More than 300,000 cases go through this office--some involving the death penalty--with approximately 600 public defenders to work them.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743270940
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 324
Book Description
Award-winning journalist Davis spent a year in Chicago's Cook County Public Defender's office for this look into the American justice system. More than 300,000 cases go through this office--some involving the death penalty--with approximately 600 public defenders to work them.
Ordinary Injustice
Author: Amy Bach
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780805074475
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 328
Book Description
From an award-winning lawyer-reporter, a radically new explanation for America’s failing justice system The stories of grave injustice are all too familiar: the lawyer who sleeps through a trial, the false confessions, the convictions of the innocent. Less visible is the chronic injustice meted out daily by a profoundly defective system. In a sweeping investigation that moves from small-town Georgia to upstate New York, from Chicago to Mississippi, Amy Bach reveals a judicial process so deeply compromised that it constitutes a menace to the people it is designed to serve. Here is the public defender who pleads most of his clients guilty; the judge who sets outrageous bail for negligible crimes; the prosecutor who brings almost no cases to trial; the court that works together to achieve a wrong verdict. Going beyond the usual explanations of bad apples and meager funding, Bach identifies an assembly-line approach that rewards shoddiness and sacrifices defendants to keep the court calendar moving, and she exposes the collusion between judge, prosecutor, and defense that puts the interests of the system above the obligation to the people. It is time, Bach argues, to institute a new method of checks and balances that will make injustice visible—the first and necessary step to any reform. Full of gripping human stories, sharp analyses, and a crusader’s sense of urgency, Ordinary Injustice is a major reassessment of the health of the nation’s courtrooms.
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780805074475
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 328
Book Description
From an award-winning lawyer-reporter, a radically new explanation for America’s failing justice system The stories of grave injustice are all too familiar: the lawyer who sleeps through a trial, the false confessions, the convictions of the innocent. Less visible is the chronic injustice meted out daily by a profoundly defective system. In a sweeping investigation that moves from small-town Georgia to upstate New York, from Chicago to Mississippi, Amy Bach reveals a judicial process so deeply compromised that it constitutes a menace to the people it is designed to serve. Here is the public defender who pleads most of his clients guilty; the judge who sets outrageous bail for negligible crimes; the prosecutor who brings almost no cases to trial; the court that works together to achieve a wrong verdict. Going beyond the usual explanations of bad apples and meager funding, Bach identifies an assembly-line approach that rewards shoddiness and sacrifices defendants to keep the court calendar moving, and she exposes the collusion between judge, prosecutor, and defense that puts the interests of the system above the obligation to the people. It is time, Bach argues, to institute a new method of checks and balances that will make injustice visible—the first and necessary step to any reform. Full of gripping human stories, sharp analyses, and a crusader’s sense of urgency, Ordinary Injustice is a major reassessment of the health of the nation’s courtrooms.
Securing Reasonable Caseloads
Author: Norman Lefstein
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780615543765
Category : Legal assistance to the poor
Languages : en
Pages : 292
Book Description
For the criminal justice system to work, adequate resources must be available for police, prosecutors and public defense. This timely, incisive and important book by Professor Norman Lefstein looks carefully at one leg of the justice system's "three-legged stool"public defenseand the chronic overload of cases faced by public defenders and other lawyers who represent the indigent. Fortunately, the publication does far more than bemoan the current lack of adequate funding, staffing and other difficulties faced by public defense systems in the U.S. and offers concrete suggestions for dealing with these serious issues.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780615543765
Category : Legal assistance to the poor
Languages : en
Pages : 292
Book Description
For the criminal justice system to work, adequate resources must be available for police, prosecutors and public defense. This timely, incisive and important book by Professor Norman Lefstein looks carefully at one leg of the justice system's "three-legged stool"public defenseand the chronic overload of cases faced by public defenders and other lawyers who represent the indigent. Fortunately, the publication does far more than bemoan the current lack of adequate funding, staffing and other difficulties faced by public defense systems in the U.S. and offers concrete suggestions for dealing with these serious issues.
Privilege and Punishment
Author: Matthew Clair
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 069123387X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320
Book Description
How the attorney-client relationship favors the privileged in criminal court—and denies justice to the poor and to working-class people of color The number of Americans arrested, brought to court, and incarcerated has skyrocketed in recent decades. Criminal defendants come from all races and economic walks of life, but they experience punishment in vastly different ways. Privilege and Punishment examines how racial and class inequalities are embedded in the attorney-client relationship, providing a devastating portrait of inequality and injustice within and beyond the criminal courts. Matthew Clair conducted extensive fieldwork in the Boston court system, attending criminal hearings and interviewing defendants, lawyers, judges, police officers, and probation officers. In this eye-opening book, he uncovers how privilege and inequality play out in criminal court interactions. When disadvantaged defendants try to learn their legal rights and advocate for themselves, lawyers and judges often silence, coerce, and punish them. Privileged defendants, who are more likely to trust their defense attorneys, delegate authority to their lawyers, defer to judges, and are rewarded for their compliance. Clair shows how attempts to exercise legal rights often backfire on the poor and on working-class people of color, and how effective legal representation alone is no guarantee of justice. Superbly written and powerfully argued, Privilege and Punishment draws needed attention to the injustices that are perpetuated by the attorney-client relationship in today’s criminal courts, and describes the reforms needed to correct them.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 069123387X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320
Book Description
How the attorney-client relationship favors the privileged in criminal court—and denies justice to the poor and to working-class people of color The number of Americans arrested, brought to court, and incarcerated has skyrocketed in recent decades. Criminal defendants come from all races and economic walks of life, but they experience punishment in vastly different ways. Privilege and Punishment examines how racial and class inequalities are embedded in the attorney-client relationship, providing a devastating portrait of inequality and injustice within and beyond the criminal courts. Matthew Clair conducted extensive fieldwork in the Boston court system, attending criminal hearings and interviewing defendants, lawyers, judges, police officers, and probation officers. In this eye-opening book, he uncovers how privilege and inequality play out in criminal court interactions. When disadvantaged defendants try to learn their legal rights and advocate for themselves, lawyers and judges often silence, coerce, and punish them. Privileged defendants, who are more likely to trust their defense attorneys, delegate authority to their lawyers, defer to judges, and are rewarded for their compliance. Clair shows how attempts to exercise legal rights often backfire on the poor and on working-class people of color, and how effective legal representation alone is no guarantee of justice. Superbly written and powerfully argued, Privilege and Punishment draws needed attention to the injustices that are perpetuated by the attorney-client relationship in today’s criminal courts, and describes the reforms needed to correct them.
Gideon's Children
Author: Howard G. Franklin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780990839804
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 578
Book Description
Set amidst the tumultuous and transformative 1960s, Gideon's Children tells the fascinating story of the idealistic young men and women who staffed the newly formed and expanded Public Defender Offices after the Supreme Court's momentous 1963 decision that mandated the right to counsel when charged with a crime. Facing virulent bias, they summoned a warrior spirit, and like Rocky in the courtroom, bravely led a revolution within the Criminal Justice System as part of the greater Civil Rights Movement. With the spotlight focused on five young Public Defenders fiercely battling prosecutors, cops, and judges within the raw environment of murder, rape, robbery, and drugs, as the intense drama unfolds, the novel weaves together the threads that form its essential lesson: That the power of the State is enormous, and that the only true protection against governmental abuse of power is the individual's supremely valuable constitutional rights! Increasingly relevant today in view of the 1984-like issues arising under the Patriot Act and highly invasive governmental spying, this lesson reminds that the more things change, the more they stay the same, as further evidenced by the disproportionate share of young black men in our prisons, and others killed for walking and driving while black.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780990839804
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 578
Book Description
Set amidst the tumultuous and transformative 1960s, Gideon's Children tells the fascinating story of the idealistic young men and women who staffed the newly formed and expanded Public Defender Offices after the Supreme Court's momentous 1963 decision that mandated the right to counsel when charged with a crime. Facing virulent bias, they summoned a warrior spirit, and like Rocky in the courtroom, bravely led a revolution within the Criminal Justice System as part of the greater Civil Rights Movement. With the spotlight focused on five young Public Defenders fiercely battling prosecutors, cops, and judges within the raw environment of murder, rape, robbery, and drugs, as the intense drama unfolds, the novel weaves together the threads that form its essential lesson: That the power of the State is enormous, and that the only true protection against governmental abuse of power is the individual's supremely valuable constitutional rights! Increasingly relevant today in view of the 1984-like issues arising under the Patriot Act and highly invasive governmental spying, this lesson reminds that the more things change, the more they stay the same, as further evidenced by the disproportionate share of young black men in our prisons, and others killed for walking and driving while black.
Model Rules of Professional Conduct
Author: American Bar Association. House of Delegates
Publisher: American Bar Association
ISBN: 9781590318737
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 216
Book Description
The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.
Publisher: American Bar Association
ISBN: 9781590318737
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 216
Book Description
The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.
Representing the Accused
Author: Jill Paperno
Publisher: Aspatore Books
ISBN: 9780314285294
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 274
Book Description
Whether you are a law clinic student making your first foray into criminal defense, a newly admitted attorney, a general practitioner, or an attorney whose practice is concentrated in criminal defense, Representing the Accused will provide you with invaluable advice as you navigate your way through a criminal case. Authored by an experienced criminal defense attorney in a large public defenders office who has personally handled thousands of criminal cases, supervised representation in thousands more, and trained scores of attorneys, this book provides insight and guidance on how to efficiently and effectively manage each step in the handling of a criminal case. In order to help you provide quality representation to your clients, this publication offers clear explanations of a criminal attorneys role at every stage, from the arrest through the conclusion of the case.
Publisher: Aspatore Books
ISBN: 9780314285294
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 274
Book Description
Whether you are a law clinic student making your first foray into criminal defense, a newly admitted attorney, a general practitioner, or an attorney whose practice is concentrated in criminal defense, Representing the Accused will provide you with invaluable advice as you navigate your way through a criminal case. Authored by an experienced criminal defense attorney in a large public defenders office who has personally handled thousands of criminal cases, supervised representation in thousands more, and trained scores of attorneys, this book provides insight and guidance on how to efficiently and effectively manage each step in the handling of a criminal case. In order to help you provide quality representation to your clients, this publication offers clear explanations of a criminal attorneys role at every stage, from the arrest through the conclusion of the case.