Fifty years to the day since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963), that courts are required under the Constitution to provide indigent criminal defendants with counsel, critics say New York’s quirky, county-based system of criminal representation for the poor is hampered by crushing defender caseloads, uneven quality of counsel, lawyer shortages in some counties and shortages of funding everywhere.
The state’s shortcomings highlighted in a 2006 report commissioned by then-chief judge Judith Kaye persist, and the primary recommendations for improvementcreation of a statewide public defenders’ office and the eventual state takeover of the costshave gone largely unaddressed.
