Right to Counsel Resources

Resources on the Sixth Amendment right to counsel.

Assessment Tools Cases Reports and Studies

Law Review Articles News Articles Other Legal Sources Videos

ASSESSMENT TOOLS

The Rhode Island Project: A Study of the Rhode Island Public Defender System and Attorney Workload Standards (NACDL & ABA, 2017).

Indigent Defense Reforms in Brooklyn, New York: An Analysis of Mandatory Case Caps and Attorney Workloads (Center for Court Innovations, 2015).
The Committee for Public Counsel Services Answering Gideon's Call Project Attorney Workload Assessment (CCI, 2014).
The Missouri Project: A Study of the Missouri Public Defender System and Attorney Workload Standards (ABA, 2014).

CASES

Right to Counsel

Rothgery v. Gillespie County, 554 U.S. 191 (2008)
Halbert v. Michigan, 545 U.S. 605 (2005)
Alabama v. Shelton, 535 U.S. 654 (2002)
Texas v. Cobb, 532 U.S. 162 (2001)
United States v. Cronic, 466 U.S. 648 (1984)
Scott v. Illinois, 440 U.S. 367 (1979)
United States v. Ash, 413 U.S. 300 (1973)
Argersinger v. Hamlin,407 U.S. 25 (1972)
Coleman v. Alabama, 399 U.S. 1 (1970)
Gilbert v. California, 388 U.S. 263 (1967)
In Re Gault, 387 U.S. 1 (1967)
United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218 (1967)
Massiah v. United States, 377 U.S. 201 (1964)
Douglas v. California, 372 U.S. 353 (1963)
Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963)

Effective Assistance of Counsel

Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 U.S. 356 (2010)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984)

Waiver

Indiana v. Edwards, 554 U.S. 164 (2008)
Iowa v. Tovar, 541 U.S. 77 (2004)
Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806 (1975)
Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458 (1938)

REPORTS AND STUDIES

Public Defense System Reports

BJA’s Sixth Amendment Initiative: Strengthening the Constitutional Protections of the Accused A Report on Ten Sites Participating in Strategic Planning (CCI, 2021).
Right to Counsel National Campaign: Stakeholder Engagement Report (R2C, 2020).
Right to Counsel Services in the 50 States: An Indigent Defense Reference Guide for Policymakers (David Carroll, 2017).
What is the State of Empirical Research on Indigent Defense Nationwide? A Brief Overview and Suggestions for Future Research (Nadine Frederique, Patricia Joseph, & R. Christopher C. Hild, 2015).
The ABA "Ten Principles of a Public Defense Delivery System": How Close Are We to Being Able to Put Them into Practice? (Caroline S. Cooper, 2015).
The Trials of Indigent Defense: Type of Counsel and Case Outcomes in Felony Jury (Erin York Cornwell, 2015).
What Makes Lawyers Happy? Transcending the Anecdotes with Data from 6200 Lawyers (Lawrence S. Krieger & Kennon M. Sheldon, 2015).
How Do We "Do Data" in Public Defense? (Andrew Lucas Blaize Davies, 2015).
Indigent Defense Services in the United States (US Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2014).
State Government Indigent Defense Expenditures (US Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2014).
Map of Public Defense Funding, Delivery Models, State Independence, and Workload Standards (Gideon at 50, 2013).

State Reports

CALIFORNIA

The Right to Counsel in Santa Cruz County, California (6AC, 2020)

The Right to Counsel in Lake County, California (6AC, 2023)

DELAWARE

The Crucible of Adversarial Testing: Access to Counsel in Delaware's Criminal Courts (6AC, 2014)

FLORIDA

Three Minute Justice: Haste and Waste in Florida's Misdemeanor Courts (NACDL, 2011)

ILLINOIS

The Right to Counsel in Illinois: Evaluation of Adult Criminal Trial-Level Indigent Defense Services (6AC, 2021)

INDIANA

The Indiana Project: An Analysis Of The Indiana Public Defense System And Attorney Workload Standards (ABA, 2020).

The Right to Counsel in Indiana: Evaluation of Trial Level Indigent Defense Services (6AC, 2016)

KENTUCKY

Supervising and Supporting Contract Attorneys Handling Conflict-of-Interest Cases (NLADA, 2019)

LOUISIANA

State of Crisis: Chronic Neglect and Underfunding for Louisiana's Public Defense System (NACDL & FCJ, 2017)

Me and Mr. Jones: A Systems-Based Analysis of a Catastrophic Defense Outcome (Pamela R. Metzger, 2015)

MAINE

The Right to Counsel in Maine: Evalutation of Services Provided by the Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services (6AC, 2019)

MICHIGAN

The Right to Counsel in Oukland County, Michigan: Evaluation of Trial-Level Indigent Defense Services in Adult Criminal Cases (6AC, 2022)

The Right to Counsel in Wayne County, Michigan: Evaluation of Assigned Counsel Services in the Third Judicial Circuit (6AC, 2019)

MISSISSIPPI

Mississippi's No-Counsel Courts (Georgia State University College of Law Center for Access to Justice, 2018)

The Right to Counsel in Mississippi: Evaluation of Adult Felony Trial Level Indigent Defense Services (6AC, 2018)

MONTANA
Spreading Justice to Rural Montana: Rurality's Impacts on Supply and Demand for Legal Services in Montana (Hillary A. Wandler, 2015)

NEVADA

The Right to Counsel in Rural Nevada: Evaluation of Indigent Defense Services (6AC, 2018)

Reclaiming Justice: Understanding the History of the Right to Counsel in Nevada so as to Ensure Equal Access to Justice in the Future (6AC, 2013)

NEW HAMPSHIRE

The Right to Counsel in New Hampshire: Evaluation of Trial-Level Indigent Defense Representation in Adult Criminal and Juvenile Delinquency Cases (6AC, 2022)

OREGON

Review of the Municipal Court Indigent Defense Service Delivery Eugene, Oregon, (NLADA, 2020).

Right to Counsel in Oregon: Evaluation of Trial Level Public Defense Representation Provided Through the Office of Public Defense Services (6AC, 2019)

SOUTH CAROLINA

Summary Injustice: A Look at Constitutional Deficiencies in South Carolina’s Summary Courts (NACDL & American Civil Liberties Union, 2016)

TEXAS

Public Defender Primer (Texas Indigent Defense Commission, 2020)

The Right to Counsel in Armstrong County & Potter County, Texas: Evaluation of Adult Trial Level Indigent Defense Representation (6AC, 2019)

Reporting the State of Public Defense in 254 Counties Through a New Web Portal (NLADA, 2019)

UTAH

The Right to Counsel in Utah: An Assessment of Trial-Level Indigent Defense Services (6AC, 2015)

WISCONSIN

Justice Shortchanged: Assigned Counse l Compensation in Wisconsin (6AC, 2015)

LAW REVIEW ARTICLES

Hoag, Alexis, Black on Black Representation (February 13, 2021). New York University Law Review, Vol. 96, 2021.
The Sixth Amendment Façade: The Racial Evolution of the Right to Counsel, Shaun Ossei-Owuwu, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 2019.
Sixth Amendment Center and The Defender Initiative, "The Right to Counsel in Mississippi: Evaluation of Adult Felony Trial Level Indigent Defense Services" (2018). Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality. 90.
The Right To Counsel But Not The Presence of Counsel: A Survey of State Criminal Procedures For Pre-Trial Release, John P. Gross, Fla. L. Rev., 69 Fla. L. Rev. 831 (2017).
Steven J. Mulroy, The Bright Line's Dark Side: Pre-Charge Attachment of the Sixth Amendment Right to Counsel, 92 Wash. L. Rev. 213 (2017).
Race, Paternalism, and the Right to Counsel, Kristin Henning, 54 AM. Crim. L. Rev, 2017.
Veronica J. Finkelstein, Better Not Call Saul: The Impact of Criminal Attorneys on their Clients' Sixth Amendment Right to Effective Assistance of Counsel, 83 U. Cin. L. Rev. 1215 (2015).
Gideon Skepticism, Alexandra Natapoff, Washington and Lee Law Review, 2013.
John D. King, Beyond "Life and Liberty": The Evolving Right to Counsel, 48 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 1 (2013).
Michael C. Mims, A Trap for the Unwary: The Sixth Amendment Right to Counsel After Montejo v. Louisiana, 71 La. L. Rev. (2010)
Melissa Minas, Blurring the Line: Impact of Offense-Specific Sixth Amendment Right to Counsel, 93 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 195 (2002-2003).

NEWS ARTICLES

This is not Justice, By Jake Tapper, The Atlantic, October 12, 2022.
Unequal Before the Law, By Matt Clair, The Nation, December 14, 2020.
The Sixth Amendment Doesn't Shut Down When The Government Does, By Kira Lerner, The Appeal, January 24, 2019.
When the Money Runs out for Public Defense, What Happens Next?, By Oliver Laughland, The Marshall Project, September 7, 2016.

OTHER LEGAL SOURCES

American Bar Association (ABA) standards

VIDEOS, WEBINARS, PODCASTS

Introduction to the Right to Counsel

Introduction to the Sixth Amendment's Right to Counsel

Presented by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL)

OPEN MIKE: Right to Fair Trial?

Right to Fair Trial? National Expert Exposes Serious Concerns in Courts All Across America

David Carroll is a nationally recognized expert in court system reform and the delivery of good counsel services. He works with the Sixth Amendment Center to ensure that people accused of crimes have access to adequate legal representation. In this episode of Open Mike, David tells Mike about the Michigan Justice system’s recent improvements after a report that his organization made on the state. They also discuss the inherent problem of bail and how court-appointed lawyers are too overworked to provide good counsel. Tune in to this insightful episode to learn about the problems with our criminal justice system and what needs to be done to fix it.

Sixth Amendment

A selected lecture from "Introduction to Key Constitutional Concepts and Supreme Court Cases" with University of Pennsylvania law professor Kermit Roosevelt III.

In Practice

Check out this episode of "In Practice" with host Rob Wolf and members of the Center for Court Innovation's Criminal Defense Initiatives team, Lisa Vavonese, deputy director, and Liz Ling, coordinator in which they discuss the use of video conferencing at initial appearances.

COVID-19 Issue Spotting and Record Preservation

The Michigan State Appellate Defender Office and the staff to the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission developed this important training for Michigan criminal defense attorneys during the COVID-19 pandemic. Co-Presenters for this session: Katherine Marcuz, Assistant Defender, State Appellate Defender Office Marla McCowan, Director of Training, Outreach & Support, Michigan Indigent Defense Commission Michael Mittlestat, Deputy Director, State Appellate Defender Office