Examination of a Criminal Justice Agency In 1963,

In 1963, the United States Supreme Court held in the case of Gideon v. Wainwright (372 U.S. 335) that every defendant charged with a felony is entitled to the assistance of counsel even if he or she cannot afford to pay a private attorney (Levinson 147). The eventual response to Gideon was the creation of public defender offices in all judicial districts across the country. This paper examines the organization of the Office of the Public Defender for the 15th Judicial Circuit in Palm Beach County, Florida. The information for this examination was gathered from the Palm Beach Public Defender's Web site and an interview with a former Palm Beach County Assistant Public Defender.

The State of Florida established the Office of Public Defender (OPD) in 1963 in response to the Supreme Court's decision in Gideon. The purpose behind Public Defender offices across the country, and in Florida in particular, is to create a more equitable system of justice throughout the nation by providing the opportunity for equal representation of the poor in criminal cases ("Formation, OPD" online). Florida itself is divided into twenty judicial circuits and Palm Beach County makes up the 15th Circuit.

The responsibilities of the Palm Beach OPD are significant and numerous. The OPD is responsible for handling all criminal cases in Palm Beach county where a judge determines that the accused cannot afford to pay for a private lawyer. This includes all

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system found that deputy public defenders in that state routinely handled too many cases with too little staff and too little support. That study concluded that the high workload had an adverse impact on all aspects of the public defender's representation. For example, they found that lawyers gave less attention to clients, found it difficult to make personal appearances on their cases, and had less time to investigate or draft motions or to prepare for trial (Annual Survey of American Law 893). Carey Haughwout is the Public Defender who heads up the Palm Beach office. The office has divided its numerous responsibilities into several divisions. The Appellate Division, comprised of 23 lawyers, seven secretaries and one administrative assistant, is headed by Chief Margaret Good-Earnest. This division handles all felony appeals from Palm Beach, Broward, Indian River, St. Lucie and Martin counties before the Fourth District Court of Appeals, the Florida Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court, if necessary. The division also handles misdemeanor appeals in Circuit Court. The division works with the trial division to review appellate issues in each case, and the appellate division lawyers also serve as mentors to prepa
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Approximate Word count = 1867
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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