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60 S. Tex. L. Rev. 277 (2019-2020)
Choosing Choice: Empowering Indigent Criminal Defendants to Select Their Own Counsel

handle is hein.journals/stexlr60 and id is 299 raw text is: CHOOSING CHOICE: EMPOWERING INDIGENT CRIMINAL DEFENDANTS TO SELECT THEIR COUNSEL CATHERINE BURNETTt I. INTRODUCTION............................................................................... 279 II. CONSTITUTIONAL CONSIDERATIONS ............................................. 282 A. Right to Counsel for the Non-Indigent-Pay to Play ............. 283 B. Right to Counsel for the Indigent-Who Pays the Piper ........ 285 C. Right to Competent Counsel-Insufficient to Answer the Client Choice Question ........................................................... 286 D. Right to Choose Counsel-Nonstarter for the Indigent.......... 287 III. CURRENT DELIVERY METHODS ..................................................... 291 A. Public Defenders ..................................................................... 292 B. Contract Counsel .................................................................... 295 C. Assigned Counsel .................................................................... 296 1. Ad Hoc Model ................................................................... 296 2. Managed Assigned Model ................................................. 297 IV. CLIENT CHOICE MODELS ............................................................... 298 A. Pure Voucher Models ............................................................. 299 B. Mixed Assigned Counsel ......................................................... 300 V. CONSEQUENCES OF CLIENT CHOICE MODELS ............................... 302 A. System-Based No Choice Options ...................................... 302 1. No Constitutional Basis..................................................... 302 2. Logistical Nightmare......................................................... 302 3. Decorum and the Orderly Administration of Justice ........ 303 4. Judicial Oversight/Veto Power ......................................... 303 5. Socialization of the Defense Bar ....................................... 303 6. Unfairness Among Attorneys............................................. 304 B. Defendant-Based No Choice Arguments ............................ 304 1. Defendants are Apt to Make Poor Selection Decisions .... 304 2. Indigent Clients Can Insist on Frivolous Tactics with Impunity ............................................................................ 305 t Associate Dean of Clinical Studies, Professor of Law, South Texas College of Law Houston. I wish to thank the clients to whose cases I have been appointed for sharing their frank and sometimes uncomfortable perceptions of the criminal justice system and my role in it. I also wish to thank the editors of the South Texas Law Review for devoting the annual ethics symposium to emerging trends and best practices in the delivery of criminal justice. 277

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