Keeping Gideon's Promise: A Comparison of the American and Israeli Public Defender Experiences
![handle is hein.journals/nyuls29 and id is 213 raw text is: KEEPING GIDEON'S PROMISE:
A COMPARISON OF THE AMERICAN AND ISRAELI
PUBLIC DEFENDER EXPERIENCES*
CHARLES J. OGLETREE, JR.t
YOAV SAPIRT
INTRODUCTION
As we enter the new millennium, indigent defendants throughout the nation
and the world are asking an important question: Who will come forward to
represent me if I face the risk of losing liberty and life at the hands of the
government? If the person is indigent in the United States, the Constitution
would seem to answer that question unequivocally. The Sixth Amendment
states that [i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall ... have the
Assistance of Counsel for his defence.' In practice, however, the right is only
guaranteed to certain classes of defendants, and the quality of defense is reduced
by legal factors such as low standards for representation and by structural factors
such as limited funding. In Israel, the right to counsel is yet to be recognized as
a fundamental constitutional right, but assistance of counsel is guaranteed to
many individuals by statute. The Israeli public defender system faces many of
the same challenges as the United States system, but has adopted a different set
of strategies to ensure quality representation.
In this article we endeavor to analyze the significance of the right to
counsel, particularly as it applies to the creation and expansion of public
defender systems in the United States, where public defender systems have been
in place for decades, and in Israel, where a public defender system was
established just seven years ago. We will examine the history of the public
defender systems in both countries. The heart of the analysis will focus on a
* The authors would like to thank the participants of the Executive Sessions on Public
Defense at Harvard University for their useful comments. The authors are also grateful to Dotan
Weinman and the editors of the N. Y U. Review of Law & Social Change, especially Sarah Bray and
Beth Packman Weinman, for their rigorous editorial work.
t Jesse Climenko Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; Founder and Director of the
Criminal Justice Institute and the Saturday School Program; and Associate Dean of the Harvard
Law School Clinical Program. Charles J. Ogletree served as a public defender in the Public
Defender's Office for the District of Columbia from 1978-1985.
: S.J.D. candidate, 2004, and Teaching Fellow, Harvard University; Clarke Byse Fellow,
Harvard University, 2002; LL.M., Harvard University, 2000; Assistant to the District of Tel Aviv
Public Defender, 1997-1999; Law Clerk to Justice Mishael Cheshin, Israeli Supreme Court, 1996-
1997; LL.B., Tel Aviv University, 1996.
1. U.S. CONST. amend. VI.
203
Imaged with Permission from N.Y.U. Review of Law and Social Change](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/nyuls29&div=17&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Keeping Gideon's Promise: A Comparison of the American and Israeli Public Defender Experiences
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