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The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution establishes the right of federal criminal defendants to counsel. The U.S. Supreme Court has extended the right to counsel to defendants in all criminal prosecutions that carry a sentence of imprisonment, regardless of whether the case is state or federal or is a felony or misdemeanor. When defendants cannot afford to pay an attorney, federal, state, and local governments must provide counsel. Methods of indigent legal service delivery on the state and local level include state and local public defender programs, assigned counsel programs, and contract attorneys. The federal system delivers indigent criminal defense through public defender organizations, community defender organizations, and panel attorneys.
Legal aid & indigent defense
- National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA). Represents legal aid and defender programs, as well as individual advocates, in the equal justice community.
- American Bar Association Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants
- Office of Justice Programs: Indigent Defense. Funding, training, programs, statistics and research about indigent defense.
- National Association for Public Interest Law (NAPIL). A national coalition of student organizations on 162 law school campuses dedicated to serving the legal needs of poor and disadvantaged Americans and training the next generation of public service lawyers.
Facts & statistics on indigent defense services
- "Appointment of Public Attorney". Sidebar story to "The Felony Case Process in Alaska: The Judicial Council Analysis" by Antonia Moras. Alaska Justice Forum 20(4), Winter 2004.
- "Indigent Criminal Defense: The National Picture." Alaska Justice Forum 19(3), Fall 2002.
- Bureau of Justice Statistics: Indigent Defense Statistics. Summary findings, Bureau of Justice Statistics reports, and related sites on right to counsel, indigent defense, and indigent criminal defendants.
- "State-Funded Indigent Defense Services, 1999" by Carol J. DeFrances. Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, September 2001, NCJ-188464. Presents data on the 21 states, including Alaska, where state government provides virtually all of the funding for indigent defense services.
- "Indigent Criminal Defense: A National Perspective (A BJS Report)" by Bureau of Justice Statistics. Alaska Justice Forum 12(2), Summer 1996.
U.S. Supreme
Court decisions
These cases had a crucial
impact on the rights to legal defense of indigent criminal defendants.
- Gideon v. Wainwright (372 U.S. 335 [1963]). The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a defendant charged with a felony, including state crimes, had the right to counsel.
- Argersinger v. Hamlin (407 U.S. 25 [1972]). The high court extended an indigent's right to counsel to all criminal prosecutions, felony or misdemeanor, which carry a sentence of imprisonment.