ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN

The public defense crisis in America must end. On the anniversary of Gideon, it is time to fulfill a forty-year-old promise that has not been kept.

Fulfillment of this Constitutional right is a serious nationwide problem - there is not one state that lives up to the full promise of the Gideon ruling. In fact, many states fall woefully short. Without the guarantee of qualified counsel in every single state, we do not have a fair justice system. It is that simple.

The "No Exceptions" campaign aims to remind each state of its responsibility to promptly provide qualified counsel to anyone who is facing
prison time for criminal charges and cannot afford an attorney. There are no exceptions to this rule.

The American Bar Association has published 10 principles that, if adopted and fully implemented by states, would go a long way toward strengthening public defense in America. The campaign is based on these ten principles.

A SYSTEM IN CRISIS

Public defenders should have the same access to the same resources as prosecutors, including legal research, investigators, experts or scientific testing. Unfortunately, in many states across the country, they do not. This lack of resources puts public defense attorneys at a disadvantage in trying to fulfill their critical role in the justice system.

For example, across the country, governments commonly spend three times as much on prosecution as on public defense. In one county in Pennsylvania, the public defender agency handles at least 75 percent of the cases brought to it by the District Attorney; yet the public defenders office’s budget is less than half of the District Attorney ’s budget. And Virginia has the lowest reimbursement rate for court- appointed lawyers in the country (for example, a limit of $112 total in a juvenile case, even if it goes to trial), and received an “F ” for the imbalance of resources between prosecution and defense in a recent report card applying the ABA Ten Principles of a Public Defense Delivery System.

If the resources placed on the scales of justice are not in balance, we do not have a fair justice system.

A national campaign, "No Exceptions," has been created to remind states of their responsibilities to provide qualified counsel and to show where that responsibility is not being met.

The guarantee of qualified counsel means counsel free from outside pressures and influence. No Exceptions