Indigent Defense

The U.S. Constitution guarantees all criminal defendants the right to be represented by counsel. Those defendants who cannot afford a lawyer have the right to have counsel appointed free of charge.[1] A considerable majority of criminal defendants in the United States fall into this category; yet, there are insufficient resources to meet their legal needs.

The American Bar Association (ABA) has characterized the funding for indigent defense services as "shamefully inadequate" and found that the system "lacks fundamental fairness and places poor persons at constant risk for wrongful conviction."[2] Public defenders represent the majority of indigent defendants in nonfederal cases,[3] but public defender offices are significantly understaffed and underfunded. In 2007, the Bureau of Justice Statistics examined caseloads in public defender offices and found that the majority of offices exceeded the recommended number of cases per attorney under the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice's Standards and Goals and employed insufficient numbers of support staff.