Steve Glassroth, Birmingham, AL criminal defense lawyer and NACDL board member has an eloquent and all too true commentary up in the Montgomery Advertiser on The Unrealized Promise of Gideon .

Forty years ago last week, on March 18, 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the landmark case of Gideon v. Wainwright and announced a principle we all take for granted: that everyone who is accused of a crime is entitled to be represented by a lawyer, even if the accused is too poor to hire one.

No one can seriously question that a fair trial cannot be possible unless a competent lawyer is provided to those who cannot afford one. As the justices said, this "seems an obvious truth." However, decades later Gideon's promise remains largely unkept as we still find that the quality of justice frequently depends on the ability to pay for it.....

While we hear the horror stories of sleeping lawyers, scant attention has been given to the major underlying cause of inadequate representation: lack of resources.

Ninety percent of Americans questioned in a recent poll said that the quality of justice people receive should not be determined by the amount of money they have. That poll also found that Americans want lawyers defending the poor to have salaries, resources and workloads equivalent to those of prosecutors. They want national quality standards for the defense of the poor, much like standards for doctors, architects or teachers.....

The keys to reforming the system for effective representation for those unable to afford lawyers are simple and basic -- things like proper training, resources proportionate to those for the prosecution, adequate payment for lawyers providing services, manageable caseloads and a guarantee of independence so that politicians or judges are unable to arbitrarily reduce lawyers' pay or fire them simply because they are effectively doing their jobs.

To do this will require spending more money, something that is never politically popular. However, failing to take the necessary steps will only further erode public confidence in a system that treats the wealthy and poor differently and can tragically contribute to wrongful convictions.....The time has come to invest in justice for all.

Senator Edward Kennedy writes in the March 24 Legal Times (subscription only) on both the unfulfilled promise of Gideon and the need for the Innocence Protection Act: