By David K. Shipler
Will you
get good lawyering if you can’t afford it? Maybe, depending on where you’ve
been charged. The quality of your legal defense will be determined, like the
value of real estate, by three factors: location, location, and location.
Fifty years
today, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Gideon v. Wainwright that indigent defendants are denied their
Sixth-Amendment guarantee of “the Assistance of Counsel” unless government provides
them with lawyers. In practice, however, the effect of the ruling has been very
spotty, creating a patchwork across the country. You’re better off in
Washington, D.C., for example, than in parts of Texas and Georgia; anywhere in
Alabama; and certain counties of New York, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. You’re
usually more fortunate in federal than in state courts, and in local
jurisdictions where indigent defense is funded by states rather than counties.
Ask Anthony
Ray Hinton. He has been sitting on Alabama’s death row since 1986, when his
court-appointed lawyer was given only $500 to hire a reputable firearms expert
to dispute the questionable findings of a police lab. The “expert” he found on
the cheap, a one-eyed retired engineer who couldn’t operate a comparison
microscope, had jurors laughing in ridicule.
