Innocent people are at constant risk of wrongful conviction due to inadequate funding of indigent defense systems nationwide. That�s the main finding of an American Bar Association report coming 40 years after a landmark Supreme Court decision, Gideon v. Wainwright said that anyone accused of a crime, rich or poor, is guaranteed the right to a lawyer. The nation�s largest lawyers organization says the American justice system is not protecting the rights of the poorest defendants. A-B-A President Robert Grey:
�Four decades after the Gideon decision, indigent defense in the united states is mired in crisis. We are troubled to find that nationwide, most indigent defense systems are woefully inadequate. What this means is, poor people are at constant risk of being wrongfully convicted.�
The A-B-A report comes after a year long series of public hearings to examine the promise of the Gideon decision. It calls for states to increase funding for indigent defense. The report will be released during the A-B-A�s midyear meeting underway in Salt Lake City.
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