Chasing Gideon: The Elusive Quest for Poor People¿s Justice

First published to mark the fifty-year anniversary of the Supreme Court decision , which guaranteed the right to legal counsel for all criminal defendants, is “a hugely important book” ( ) that gives us a visceral, unforgettable experience of our systemic failure to fulfill this basic constitutional right. Written in the tradition of , by the late Anthony Lewis, this is “a book of nightmares,” as Leonard Pitts wrote in the , because it shows that the “‘justice system' too often produces the opposite of what its name suggests, particularly for its most vulnerable constituents.” Following its publication, , which ACLU director Anthony Romero said “illustrates the scope and seriousness of the indigent defense crisis,” became an integral part of a growing national conversation about how to reform indigent defense in America, coordinated with an HBO documentary and a website to promote the book and the movie. The effort spread news about directly to public defenders offices nationwide and drove a national conversation about what Eric Holder called the “shameful state of affairs” of indigent defense (in the ).