But that is not what happened, after Sanogo’s case was assigned to the Delaware public defender’s office, in Wilmington. Five years ago, that office became one of two two-year pilot programs for Partners for Justice , a scrappy nonprofit with an improbable mission: to transform the public criminal-defense system. Then as now, public defenders represent eighty per cent of all people charged with a crime, and they typically work in offices that are underfunded and understaffed.
“For the conviction of the accused every weapon is provided and used, even those poisoned by wrong and injustice,” she said. “But what machinery is provided for the defense of the innocent? None. Absolutely none. For its lesser duty of convicting the guilty it has equipped and maintains an array and gives access to the public funds; for the higher one of defense of the innocent there is neither counsel nor officer nor money.” It wasn’t until the unanimous 1963 Supreme Court decision in Gideon v.