Gideon Vs. Wainwrights Case Study

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Recommended: prominent theories of crime causation

How an individual is treated based on their social class and power can be seen in how indigent defendants in the criminal justice system often have to deal with a less than adequate defense (Benner and Lawrence 2004.) Although the right for defendants to have adequate council for criminal trials was established in Gideon v. Wainwrights, underfunding of public defender’s offices undermines these rights (Baxter 2010).
Gideon v. Wainwright
The right for all persons to have a proper defense no matter their position in society was affirmed in the 1965 case of Gideon v. Wainwrights (OYEZ 2015). Before the supreme court case of Gideon v. Wainwrights, individuals were only provided a public defender when charged with a capital offense. In Florida in …show more content…

Wainwrights. These theoretical developments explain how the emergence of a political culture which substantially redefined crime and justice have resulted in a change in due process and civil liberties. Despite popular beliefs a welfare climate sods not lead to more progressive indigent defense policies. Additionally, Republican control of the statehouse has led to a perpetuation of local responsibility for program funding (Davis and Warden 2009). Moreover, the Republican control of the statehouse results in budget cuts regarding the money allotted to public defenders, which puts the financial responsibility of local municipalities. Many republicans in the state house do not support funding legal services for indigent defendants, which do to their control over the statehouse, has resulted in drastic budgetary cuts (Davis and Warden 2009). When local municipalities are forced to provide financial support for Indigent defense service due to a lack of stat funding, the quality of indigent defense services across the states decrease (Davis and Warden …show more content…

the public defender officers often face a decrease in funding. As a result of the current financial crisis, many providers of indigent defense services have seen drastic cuts in their funding. Consequently, this decrease in funding has resulted in many agencies that provide indigent legal services to lay off employees, which subsequently increases the remaining attorneys case loads, and hinders their ability to provide adequate representation for their clients Baxter (2010).This patterns in structure and funding had real consequences for the type of indigent defense services available to indigent defenders and created the unfair bias against indigent accused persons in the United States Legal System (Davies and Worden 2009). Furthermore, in Massachusetts as of 2002, a lack of funding for indigent defense services has led to decade of neglect surrounding the public legal services structure, which is supposed to provide 90% of the state's indigent defendants (Sabis and Weber

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