Criticisms of GideonPaul Butler believes that Gideon gives prosecutors an excuse to imprison more poor Americans, seeing that they now have legal representation:
The poor—especially the poor and black—are incarcerated at exponentially greater levels now than when Gideon was decided. If more poor people are represented by lawyers because of Gideon, arguably their trials or plea bargains are fairer than before Gideon, when they did not have lawyers. . . . Since Gideon, the percentage of prosecutions against the poor has increased from 43% to 80%. American prosecutors have so much discretion, and there are so many criminal laws, that they can bring a case against virtually whomever they choose. Prosecutors have mostly chosen the poor, but now, because of Gideon, they look like less like [sic] bullies. [1] Butler is right that poor people need to be targeted less by prosecutors, but the benefits of Gideon strongly outweigh its downsides.
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"[Gideon] has not improved the situation of most poor people, and in some
ways has worsened their plight." -Paul Butler [2] |
Comparative International Incarceration Rates |
Most scholars disagree with Butler, though:
I think Paul Butler is wrong. Where did he get his statistics? My experience has been that between 85 and 95 percent of criminal defendants always have been indigent. It is no different today than it was in 1963. That percentage has not changed. Much of the critique against Gideon does not challenge the decision, but rather the inadequate compliance with the decision.
See also: Plea Bargains |
- 1. Paul D. Butler, "Poor People Lose: Gideon and the Critique of Rights," Yale Law Journal 122, no. 8 (June 2013): 2197-2198.
- 2. Ibid., 2176.
- 3. "Profile: Paul Butler ’86 Used to Put People Away—Now He Wants to Set Them Free," Harvard Law Bulletin, last modified 2010, accessed March 15, 2014.
- 4. Christopher Hartney, US Rates of Incarceration: A Global Perspective (Washington, DC: National Council on Crime and Delinquency, 2006), 2.
- 5. Bruce R. Jacob, e-mail interview by the author, Tallahassee, FL, March 18, 2014.