As your elected Public Defender for the Second Judicial Circuit, I am proud to walk a path paved by women like Clara Foltz.

This piece was published in coordination with Zealous, an organization working to amplify the perspective of public defenders. Learn more about the history of public defense at This Is Defense. But ...

The Legislature stabilized the immediate crisis, but future access to court-appointed defense lawyers remains uncertain.

In 1963, a poor man in a Florida jail changed American justice with a pencil. Clarence Earl Gideon had no lawyer, no money, and no power — so he wrote to the Supreme Court by hand. The Court listened.

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. For years the popular belief has been, if you’re charged with a crime, the last person you want representing you is a public ...

State capitals from Honolulu to Augusta, Maine, heard Gideon’s trumpet when the U.S. Supreme Court sounded it in 1963. But Harrisburg has remained deaf for 60 years to the clarion call to provide ...

Sixty years ago today, the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in Gideon v. Wainwright. The court held that states must abide by the Sixth Amendment and that those whose liberty is threatened ...

“How can you defend those people?” That is the question criminal defense attorneys face at family functions, social gatherings and watering holes. Like many of my colleagues, I have a standard answer: ...

He provided the research and drafts that helped bring about the Supreme Court’s landmark Gideon v. Wainwright decision in 1963. By Clay Risen Abe Krash, who as a junior partner at the law firm Arnold, ...

This week marks the 60th anniversary of a landmark Supreme Court ruling. In Gideon v. Wainwright, the high court said everyone, regardless of income, has a fundamental right to a lawyer. Here's ...

A more efficient and just pretrial system is worth Oklahoma's investment — and brings resources back swiftly. Passing Senate ...

For years the popular belief has been, if you’re charged with a crime, the last person you want representing you is a public defender. The image of a public defender is an overworked, underpaid hack ...