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Title details for Free Justice by Sara Mayeux - Available

Free Justice

A History of the Public Defender in Twentieth-Century America

by Sara Mayeux
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Every day, in courtrooms around the United States, thousands of criminal defendants are represented by public defenders — lawyers provided by the government for those who cannot afford private counsel. Though often taken for granted, the modern American public defender has a surprisingly contentious history — one that offers insights not only about the “carceral state,” but also about the contours and compromises of twentieth-century liberalism.
First gaining appeal amidst the Progressive Era fervor for court reform, the public defender idea was swiftly quashed by elite corporate lawyers who believed the legal profession should remain independent from the state. Public defenders took hold in some localities but not yet as a nationwide standard. By the 1960s, views had shifted. Gideon v. Wainwright enshrined the right to counsel into law and the legal profession mobilized to expand the ranks of public defenders nationwide. Yet within a few years, lawyers had already diagnosed a “crisis” of underfunded, overworked defenders providing inadequate representation — a crisis that persists today. This book shows how these conditions, often attributed to recent fiscal emergencies, have deep roots, and it chronicles the intertwined histories of constitutional doctrine, big philanthropy, professional in-fighting, and Cold War culture that made public defenders ubiquitous but embattled figures in American courtrooms.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Justice, Power, and Politics

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 28, 2020

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

      • ISBN: 9781469656045

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781469656038

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781469656038
      • File size: 1585 KB
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    Navigation

    • Table of contents to all chapters of the text via links.

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      June 5, 2020

      Public defenders now form part of the American way of life, having grown roots in the nation's legal culture as central to the daily operations of its criminal courts, argues Mayeux (law, Vanderbilt Univ.). How their publicly funded legal assistance became commonplace is what she seeks to explain with insights into the contested meanings of democracy and liberalism. The story is one of change over time, in not only American legal culture but national identity as elite lawyers, especially during the 1950s-70s, reshaped public opinion. The U.S. Supreme Court's 1963 decision in Gideon v. Wainwright, establishing criminal defendants' constitutional right to court-appointed defense counsel, marked a watershed moment in the current of beliefs and values communicating how the nation should ideally think of itself in relation to its justice system. The shift was neither instant nor easy, Mayeux demonstrates. Persistently contested, the concept of public legal assistance succeeded to the degree it has in large part because of periodic redefinition of the project and its goals, she concludes. VERDICT This foray into the ideas that shape and sustain U.S. law and society offers significant inroads for readers interested in the progress and pitfalls of the U.S. criminal justice system, and how incidental and intentional actions affect historical developments.--Thomas J. Davis, Arizona State Univ., Tempe

      Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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  • English

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