Chasing Gideon: The Elusive Quest for Poor People's Justice by Karen Houppert (Paperback)

"First published to mark the fifty-year anniversary of the Supreme Court decision Gideon v. Wainwright , which guaranteed the right to legal counsel for all criminal defendants, Chasing Gideon is ""a hugely important book"" ( New York Law Journal ) that gives us a visceral, unforgettable experience of our systemic failure to fulfill this basic constitutional right. Written in the tradition of Gideon's Trumpet , by the late Anthony Lewis, this is ""a book of nightmares,"" as Leonard Pitts wrote in the Miami Herald , 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, Chasing Gideon , 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 Chasing Gideon 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 Washington Post )."