The Sixth Amendment to the US Constitution promises effective legal assistance to anyone charged with a crime punishable by imprisonment. This guarantee assumes that everyone, rich and poor, is equal before the law. However, the reality of the justice system is different for the majority. Currently, the legal representation system is opposed to a person if he or she is colored or poor, and doubly unfair if he or she is both colored and poor.
Racial differences in the criminal justice system can be distinguished by statistics. In 2017, African Americans accounted for 53.1% of all homicide arrests, Whites 44.2%, Native Americans 2.4%, and Asians 1.2% (Banks, 2018). However, according to the racial composition of the US Census Bureau in 2017, Whites account for 73.0%, African Americans 12.65%, Asians 5.35%, and Native Americans 1.00% (Banks, 2018). It clearly reflects the quality of legal representation provided to racial minorities.
Public defender systems have for a long time suffered from underfunded and overworked cases. Since more than 80% of those charged with serious crimes are indigent, they cannot hire a private lawyer and instead rely on a public defender’s representative (Banks, 2018). At the same time, a lawsuit filed in Washington State revealed that publicly appointed defense attorneys worked less than an hour per case, with a burden of 1,000 misdemeanors per year (Banks, 2018). Thus, too often, the poor receive lower protection than those with the means to pay.
To summarize, class and race largely determine the quality of legal representation; primarily, this applies to the African American race. Insufficient funding and overburdened national defense affairs undermine procedural fairness and the rule of law. Therefore, if I were an accused African American, Hispanic, or Native American and could pick whether to be represented by a public or a private attorney, I would prefer the latter.
Reference
Banks, C. (2018). Criminal justice ethics: Theory and practice. SAGE Publications.