Gideon was a beginning. It was a brave beginning. Read Gideon again, the wonderful language of Justice Black as to why it was time to overrule Betts v. Brady and why it is that everybody should be able to have a defense lawyer and, as we say, a competent defense lawyer with resources.

This can't be America without it. And I think what we have to do is teach or at least declare or confront the present administration with what are the true values, American values, which they like to speak so much about. Those are the values expressed in the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution.

Probably best known to the public as the tenacious counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Watergate, Sam Dash was one of the most distinguished lawyers this country has ever produced. For years, as a prosecutor, as a defense lawyer, as a law professor and in public service, he was one of the stalwarts who continuously pressed for improvements in our criminal justice system.

In periods when this country has faced a constitutional crisis or patent injustice, Sam Dash has stood tall. His tireless devotion to the constitution helped resolve systemic disgraces such as warrantless wiretapping and the lack of adequate indigent defense services in the 1950s and 1960s. Later, during the Watergate and Whitewater scandals, Sam was instrumental in our country’s successfully surviving these constitutional crises. He was dedicated to justice above all, and his passage leaves a great void in America.