By Alan Bean

Fifty years ago, the Supreme Court’s ruling in Gideon v. Wainwright theoretically gave criminal defendants an iron-clad right to effective legal representation.  But Andrew Cohen of the Brennan Center for Justice says it’s a lie.  Everything was fine until America raced headlong into a self-destructive tango with mass incarceration.  Suddenly, there were so many cases at bar that we faced a choice: either pump millions of dollars into the indigent defense system or whittle away at Gideon until the ostensible right to the services of a good lawyer meant next to nothing.  Guess which way we moved? (more…)