The Right to Counsel or the Right Counsel?

The Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) Supreme Court decision recognized criminal defendants’ right to counsel in state courts. The administration of rights to counsel has largely been left to states and local governments and, as a result, many jurisdictions provide indigent defendants with assigned counsel—local private attorneys who work full time in the charging jurisdiction—as opposed to public defenders. Political scientist Arvind Krishnamurthy will test whether assigned counsel provide lower-quality representation for indigent clients than public defenders. He will analyze Virginia District Court data, the Virginia Court-Appointed Counsel Database, compensation payout data for court-appointed counsel, Virginia voter file data, and circuit court case-level data in two large jurisdictions in Virginia that opened public defense offices, one in 2010 and one in 2023, for his study.