From Vera:
“You have the right to an attorney.”
It’s a familiar line from countless TV procedurals. Miranda rights are derived, in part, from the Sixth Amendment, which guarantees the right to counsel. What’s far less familiar is how fragile the promise of public defenders can be in practice, especially for people who cannot afford their own attorney.
People like Cyrus Gray, who spent four and a half years incarcerated at the Hays County Jail in Texas. The county did not have a public defender’s office at the time, so the court appointed Gray a private lawyer who, in turn, did not return any of his calls. Continue reading >>>
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