First published to mark the fifty-year anniversary of the Supreme Court decision
Gideon v. Wainwright
, which guaranteed the right to legal counsel for all criminal defendants,
Chasing Gideon
is “a hugely important book” (
New York Law Journal
) that gives us a visceral, unforgettable experience of our systemic failure to fulfill this basic constitutional right. Written in the tradition of
Gideon's Trumpet
, by the late Anthony Lewis, this is “a book of nightmares,” as Leonard Pitts wrote in the
Miami Herald
, because it shows that the “‘justice system' too often produces the opposite of what its name suggests, particularly for its most vulnerable constituents.”
Following its publication,
, which ACLU director Anthony Romero said “illustrates the scope and seriousness of the indigent defense crisis,” became an integral part of a growing national conversation about how to reform indigent defense in America, coordinated with an HBO documentary and a website to promote the book and the movie. The effort spread news about
directly to public defenders offices nationwide and drove a national conversation about what Eric Holder called the “shameful state of affairs” of indigent defense (in the
Washington Post
).