Five decades after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Gideon v. Wainwright decision, Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation that fails to assist counties in fulfilling the ruling’s mandate, state Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf, R-Montgomery, told colleagues Tuesday at a state Capitol hearing on criminal defense for the indigent.
Greenleaf, who is sponsoring a measure to establish a statewide agency to train public defenders for “effective indigent defense,” made the statement at a hearing before the Pennsylvania Senate Judiciary Committee, where he was joined by members of Pennsylvania’s legal community lending their support to the proposed legislation.
