Public Defender and Legal Aid Systems
Contents
Background
In many countries the right to counsel requires the creation of public defender and legal aid systems because most criminal defendants are from low-income backgrounds and cannot afford a paid attorney.
The first public defender
United States
The first state to recognize the right to counsel for indigent defendants was Indiana:
"It is not to be thought of in a civilized community for a moment that any citizen put in jeopardy of life or liberty should be debarred of counsel because he is too poor to employ such aid . . . No court could be expected to respect itself to sit and hear such a trial. The defense of the poor in such cases is a duty which will at once be conceded as essential to the accused, to the court and to the public."<ref>Webb v. Baird, 6 Ind. 13 (1853)Cite error: The opening
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tag is malformed or has a bad nameGovernment-Run Public Defender Offices
Contracted Public Defender Offices
Panel Systems
Notes