Chasing Gideon: The Elusive Quest for Poor People's Justice

By Karen Houppert

Book Overview

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 ).

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1620970260
• ISBN13: 9781620970263
• Release Date: February 2015
• Publisher: New Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 2.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.8"