By Jennifer Sellitti
Monday, March 18, is National Public Defender Day.
The day marks the anniversary of the landmark 1963 Supreme Court decision in Gideon vs. Wainwright, a case that originated with Clarence Earl Gideon, a Florida man who was charged with breaking and entering with the intent to commit a misdemeanor.
Gideon requested that the court appoint an attorney to represent him during his trial because he could not afford one. The judge denied his request. Gideon had no choice but to represent himself and was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison. While in prison, he filed a handwritten petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that his constitutional right to a fair trial had been violated because he was not provided with legal representation.
In a unanimous decision, the Court overturned Gideon’s conviction and held that the U.S. Constitution’s Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to counsel for people accused of serious crimes. “Lawyers in criminal courts are necessities, not luxuries,” the Court wrote in a decision that enshrined the right to counsel as a fundamental one and required states to provide lawyers to people who could not afford to hire an attorney.
At his second trial, Gideon was represented by a court-appointed lawyer who brought out the weaknesses in the prosecution’s case, and Gideon was acquitted.
It was Gideon’s letter, hand-scrawled in pencil on a thin roll of prison-issued paper, that led to the establishment of public defender systems across the country and reinforced the principle that access to competent legal counsel is a crucial component of a fair and just legal process.
New Jersey was the first state in the nation to establish a statewide public defender system. Gov. Richard J. Hughes appointed attorney Peter Murray as New Jersey’s first public defender, and the office opened its doors in Newark on July 1, 1967, with a mission to stand up for the rights of anyone accused of a crime regardless of how much money they have, who they are, or what they may or may not have done.
The members of Murray’s newly formed office were baptized by fire. On July 12, 1967, just 12 days after the office opened its doors, Newark erupted in a four-day uprising fueled by massive social unrest. Cases brought by prosecutors against protestors swamped the burgeoning Public Defender’s Office and resulted in more than 700 trials scheduled for the month of September 1967 alone.
The office hired lawyers committed to fighting those cases and attorneys from around the state volunteered to help. What rose from the ashes of the long hot summer of 1967 was the Public Defender’s Office, which was battle-tested, engaged in the community, and adept at amplifying the voices of people who, just like Clarence Earl Gideon, had for too long been marginalized, forgotten, and ignored.
Today, the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender represents New Jerseyans charged with indictable offenses in criminal courts and youth charged with delinquency offenses in all 21 counties. The 1,300-employee agency also represents children and parents in abuse and neglect and termination of parental rights cases, provides constitutionally mandated representation for indigent clients at voluntary and involuntary psychiatric commitment hearings, and represents individuals at parole revocation proceedings. Attorneys also represent people in our state’s appellate courts.
One of the first articles about Public Defender Murray and the new office was published by the Bayonne Times in June of 1967 under the headline, “Defender of the Public Appointed.” The simple twist of words is a reminder that public defenders stand up for the rights of everyone when we stand up for a single person in court. It is also a reminder that public defenders play a vital and often underestimated role in public safety.
People often think of police and prosecutors when they think about safety, but an equally and arguably more powerful tool is public defense. Last year, our office handled 55,000 cases and represented approximately 90% of people facing indictable charges in court. Public defenders are assigned to people immediately after their lives intersect with the legal system, when they are often in the greatest state of crisis and need. It is public defenders — not police, prosecutors, service providers, judges, or government agencies — who are in the best position to understand what our clients need.
Public defenders already advocate fiercely for the people we represent in court, but there exists an opportunity for us to do more — to connect our clients to the services that have the power to change their lives. The truth is that until issues like housing, physical and mental health, substance use, and unemployment are addressed, the people we represent will be less able to move away from our family and criminal legal systems. The Office of the Public Defender is transforming in this regard.
The changes center around the goal of making the office a national leader in statewide holistic defense. Traditional public defense is case-centered. Holistic defense is client-centered. In a holistic model, a client’s life goals are prioritized and addressed along with legal outcomes. This means clients receive first-class representation in courtrooms and help to address the harm they may have caused to others or to themselves. This is not only good for the people we serve but it saves taxpayer dollars, lowers the chances that a person will return to the system, and most importantly, puts the goals of the people we represent at the center of all we do.
Transforming the system will not happen overnight. It will take resources, like the addition of social workers to our client service teams, more attorneys to reduce criminal caseloads that today stand at3.2 times the national best practice standards, and garnering the political will to divert funding from traditional sources to innovative defender-led service delivery systems. But public defenders are no strangers to rolling up their sleeves and getting to work.
Fifty-seven years ago, in the sweltering summer of 1967, Public Defender Peter Murray did just that. He and a team of newly minted staff attorneys and investigators sat behind desks piled high with 2,000 cases, a number far higher than anyone could have anticipated when legislation creating the New Jersey Office of Public Defender was passed.
He knew what all public defenders know, that those files were more than manilla folders filled with police reports; they represented people – people about to face the power of the police, the authority of prosecutors, and even public ire. He did not complain. None of them did. They got to work and in the process of representing those 2,000 people one by one, created a model for statewide public defense that has guided other jurisdictions.
But the defense never rests. It is on the shoulders of those first defenders that the attorneys, investigators, and support staff of our office proudly stand as we look ahead to the future. In our view, it is a future that prioritizes the goals of the people we serve and, in the process, makes our systems fairer and more equitable for all New Jerseyans.
Jennifer Sellitti is the New Jersey Public Defender.
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