Law Commons^™

Fear Of Adversariness: Using Gideon To Restrict Defendants' Invocation Of Adversary Procedures, Pamela R. Metzger

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Fifty years ago Gideon promised that an attorney would vindicate the constitutional rights of any accused too poor to afford an attorney. But Gideon also promised more. Writ small, Gideon promised to protect individual defendants; writ large, Gideon promised to protect our system of constitutional criminal procedure. Much has been written about Gideon’s broken promise to our poor; this Essay is about Gideon’s broken promise to our system.

With its army of zealous public defenders, Gideon should have produced litigation that vigorously protected the core structures of our adversary trial system. Instead, courts have converted Gideon representation into a Gideon …