I just wish that Stabler would chill the fuck out, and recognize that people have a right to lawyer up. No amount of wall punching and glowering is going to change that. I know you have a tough job and all, but like, it’s not (featured guest actor of the week)’s responsibility to make it easier.
Fucking cops, man.
Charts: Why You're in Deep Trouble If You Can't Afford a Lawyer
motherjones.comFifty years after the groundbreaking “Gideon” ruling, public defenders are overworked, underpaid—and America’s poor are paying the price.
Yesterday marked half a century since the Supreme Court decided Gideon v. Wainwright. It’s an extraordinary case that had extraordinary impact.
Gideon was arrested for stealing a few odds and ends from a bar. Unable to afford an attorney and refused one by the court, he represented himself and ended up in prison. While there, he researched the law and came to the conclusion that denying him an attorney on the basis of his inability to pay was unconstitutional. When his letters to this effect (sent to the FBI and the state court) fell on deaf ears, he wrote a handwritten petition to the US Supreme Court , asking them to hear his case.
From the flickr of the U.S. National Archives:
NYT: The Right to Counsel, Badly Battered at 50
nytimes.comThere is no shortage of lawyers to do this work. What stands in the way is an undemocratic, deep-seated lack of political will.
Serious problems persist in indigent legal defense
huffingtonpost.comA unanimous high court issued its decision in Gideon v. Wainwright on March 18, 1963, declaring that states have an obligation to provide defendants with “the guiding hand of counsel” to ensure a fair trial for the accused.
But in many states today, taxpayer-funded public defenders face crushing caseloads, the quality of legal representation varies from county to county and people stand before judges having seen a lawyer only briefly, if at all.
