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Pros And Cons Of Public Defender

2011 Words9 Pages

The public defender is in a multitude of TV shows such as Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Night Court, and Law and Order as well as others. However, there is always one common theme: the Public Defender is a sub-par lawyer for poor people that will always force you into jail or make you plead guilty to a crime you committed. Is this the case? In 1893 a woman by the name of Claire Shortridge Foltz, a single mother in her 40s, decided that she wanted to make a speech at the Chicago World Fair about creating a national public defender movement. However, she was the first female lawyer and was only known for that simple fact. Her speech said that forcing an accused person of a crime to pay for their defense was unconstitutional. In an article that details this speech Julianne McShane summarizes her speech by pondering the idea that, “For every public prosecutor, there should be a public defender chosen in the same way and paid out of the same fund”(McShane). This is now one of the main issues with the public defender system nowadays, as public defenders are overworked and there are far …show more content…

All of Gideon and Foltz’s hard work to create the position of the public defender if it is not properly used. This unfortunately seems to be the case. This is clearly stated in the article The Public Defender Injustice, written by 5 established lawyers, state,” According to a study by the U.S. Department of Justice, 76% of defendants with a private attorney were convicted, compared to 88% of defendants with a public attorney.”(Campbell et al.) A 12% difference doesn’t sound like much but that could mean that either 12% of innocent defendants are convicted or 12% of guilty criminals are left to walk free just because of whether or not they pay for an attorney. This is a colossal difference and begs the question of whether your Socio-Economic status determines if an individual is convicted wrongfully or a guilty person is able to walk

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