CJ 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 59: Alan Dershowitz, Johnnie Cochran, Misdemeanor
Types of Defense
There are three ways for defendants to defend themselves in a criminal court:
By using legal services for the poor.
By using retained counsel.
By self representation.‐
Legal services for the poor
Most defendants can't afford to hire their own private defense attorney. When
defendants are legally indigent, the court is required to provide them with legal
representation at government expense if jail or prison time is a possible sentence.
In Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that an indigent
defendant charged in a state court with a felony has the right to counsel under the due
process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In 1972 the Court ruled in Argersinger v.
Hamlin that a defendant has the right to counsel at trial whenever he or she may be
imprisoned for any offense, whether it is a felony or a misdemeanor. But indigent
defendants are not always entitled to free legal representation. For example, those
charged with minor traffic offenses are not entitled to free legal services.
How does one qualify for free legal services? Ordinarily, a defendant who wants legal
counsel appointed at government expense must ask a judge to appoint an attorney and
provide the court with information about his or her income and resources. Each state
makes its own rules with respect to who is indigent.
More than 80 percent of the people in the U.S. who are accused of a felony use a
publicly appointed defense attorney. The federal government and many states set
up public defender offices. Typically, the chief public defender is an elected or
appointed official who supervises assistant public defenders. Public defenders
represent indigent defendants in criminal cases. In states that don't have public
defenders, most of the criminal cases are handled through an assigned counsel
system. In such a system, the court appoints a private attorney to represent indigent
defendants. A judge selects the attorney from a list established by the court, and the
attorney's fee is paid by the government with jurisdiction over a case. The contract
system is used in a few counties, mainly in the western states. In this system, a law
firm or lawyer is paid a set amount of money to handle indigents' defense cases for a
specified period.
Free legal defense services are generally underfunded because court appointed legal ‐
representation is politically unpopular. High caseloads for court appointed attorneys ‐
force them to pressure defendants to accept plea bargains. Public defenders in large
offices in urban areas, for example, are likely to have close to two hundred felony cases
per year. Another problem is that some court appointed attorneys are unlikely to take ‐
issue with judges' decisions because they depend on judges for future appointments in
cases involving indigents.
Retained counsel
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
There are three ways for defendants to defend themselves in a criminal court: By using legal services for the poor. Most defendants can"t afford to hire their own private defense attorney. When defendants are legally indigent, the court is required to provide them with legal representation at government expense if jail or prison time is a possible sentence. In gideon v. wainwright (1963), the u. s. supreme court ruled that an indigent defendant charged in a state court with a felony has the right to counsel under the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment. In 1972 the court ruled in argersinger v. Hamlin that a defendant has the right to counsel at trial whenever he or she may be imprisoned for any offense, whether it is a felony or a misdemeanor. But indigent defendants are not always entitled to free legal representation. For example, those charged with minor traffic offenses are not entitled to free legal services.
