This piece was published in coordination with Zealous, an organization working to amplify the perspective of public defenders. Learn more about the history of public defense at This Is Defense. But ...

Every March 18, the legal community observes Gideon Day, marking the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1963 decision in Gideon v. Wainwright. The case is a civics textbook staple: Clarence Earl ...

The Yolo County Board of Supervisors has proclaimed March 18, 2026 as Public Defense Day and is urging the state to provide ...

San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju was held in contempt for refusing to accept more cases due to excessive workloads, ...

OPINION: The decision by San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins to prosecute hundreds of low-level cases has crippled ...

Sixty years ago today, the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in Gideon v. Wainwright. The court held that states must abide by the Sixth Amendment and that those whose liberty is threatened ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. For years the popular belief has been, if you’re charged with a crime, the last person you want representing you is a public ...

Sixty years ago this week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous landmark ruling intended to create a more equitable criminal justice system. In California, we are still waiting for the change ...

“How can you defend those people?” That is the question criminal defense attorneys face at family functions, social gatherings and watering holes. Like many of my colleagues, I have a standard answer: ...

State capitals from Honolulu to Augusta, Maine, heard Gideon’s trumpet when the U.S. Supreme Court sounded it in 1963. But Harrisburg has remained deaf for 60 years to the clarion call to provide ...

For years the popular belief has been, if you’re charged with a crime, the last person you want representing you is a public defender. The image of a public defender is an overworked, underpaid hack ...