NCJ Number
106297
Journal
Criminal Justice Volume: 2 Issue: 2 Dated: (Summer 1987) Pages: 2-4,44-45
Date Published
1987
Length
5 pages
Annotation
In Powell v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court established the right to counsel for indigent capital defendants.
Abstract
In the 55 years since this decision, the right has proved largely illusory, and little has been done to ensure that adequate counsel is provided to defendants in capital cases. The decision did not assure that defense lawyers would be skilled and competent, it did not provide that adequate defense resources be provided, and it did not foresee the development of specialization in death penalty jurisprudence. In addition, most public defender systems created during the moratorium on capital punishment were not formed with capital punishment in mind, and most could not accommodate capital cases when the moratorium ended in 1976. Capital cases have greater procedural requirements, higher due process standards, more intense judicial scrutiny, and greater potential costs to defendants. Consequently, a moratorium should be called on all executions until adequate capital case public defender system are available.