Abstract
Today, every indigent person accused of a crime, where incarceration is a reasonably possible sentence, has the right to counsel apppointed by the State. From an historical perspective, this right is relatively new, since it has only evolved over the last 50 years and is the result of a variety of decisions by the Supreme Court of the United States. In essence, the States have developed three mechanisms to comply with these decisions: (1) Assigned Counsel Systems; (2) Contract Counsel Systems; and (3) Public Defender Systems. This paper (a) reviews the decisions applicable to indigents; (b) reviews existing indigent defense delivery systems; and (c) concludes that the independent State Public Defender Agency is the best system available from the perspectives of both the taxpayer and the defendant.
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