Book Review: Chasing gideon: The elusive quest for poor people’s justice

• Author: Sarah Napper
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016813519816
• Published date: 01 March 2014
• Date: 01 March 2014
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

Houppert, K. (2013).

Chasing gideon: The elusive quest for poor people’s justice. New York, NY: The New Press. 275 pp. $26.95

(Hardback), ISBN: 978-1-59558-892-0.

Reviewed by: Sarah Napper, Georgia State University, USA

DOI: 10.1177/0734016813519816

In Chasing Gideon: The Elusive Quest for Poor People’s Justice, Karen Houppert, who teaches in

the MA writing program at Johns Hopkins University and has authored two other books, outlines

criminal cases in which the criminal justice system failed to meet the requirements of the right to

counsel for indigent clients set forth by Gideon v. Wainwright. Houppert provides a detailed review

of the landmark case of Gideon v. Wainwright and how this 1963 decision by the U.S. Supreme

Court envisioned a judicial system that allowed all defendants in a court of law to have counsel

regardless of their financial status. It has been 50 years since the Gideon decision and the author uses

this book to clearly define the problems with indigent defense today. In particular, Houppert specif-

ically addresses four separate criminal cases in Washington, Florida, Louisiana, and Georgia that

detail the current criminal justice system and she argues that the system has failed to uphold the

vision of Gideon v. Wainwright. The author claims that a lack of funding, continuous expanding

caseloads, and time constraints create a system that is set to fail indigent clients.

Karen Houppert conducts her research by interviewing key players who make up the court sys-

tems such as indigent clients, defense attorneys, judges, and jury members of capital cases. She

focuses on four states that create a limitation for generalizability across the nation as a whole but

a reasonable practical consideration nonetheless. The results indicate that the American court system

is inefficient and negligent when it concerns indigent defense and the funding of public defenders.

Houppert argues that there has been a large increase in the number of prosecutions caused by the war

on drugs and mandatory minimums that has made the need for indigent defense exceptionally high

leaving indigent clients to be routinely denied their basic constitutional rights. In this book, the

author focuses primarily on the critical situation surrounding indigent defense, how public defen-

ders’ can shift the scales between life and death, and raises the question of how we as a nation choose

to define justice. Houppert breaks the book into chapters that outline specific problems within the

four states and details important issues concerning the rights of indignant clients.

Chapter 1 describes a case involving a 19-year-old defendant charged with vehicular homicide

and assault in the state of Washington. Here, Houppert details the case and uses it to illustrate the

various hurdles facing public defenders in this state. She notes how public defenders do not feel like

they can adequately provide effective assistance of counsel even if they wanted to. She also explains

how this case, which is similar to many others, goes against the intent of Gideon v. Wainwright and

she suggest that the ‘‘lock them up’’ mentality plays a large role in over populating the jails. Houp-

pert claims the number of exonerated inmates from innocence projects is proof that there is a serious

problem in our justice system.

Chapter 2 outlines the case of Clarence Earl Gideon in the state of Florida. Houppert details the

landmark case of Gideon v. Wainwright as a David versus Goliath plot. The author explains that this

case established lawyers as necessities, not luxuries. She also points out the importance of other

cases that preceded Gideon and massive changes that have taken place in the 50 years since. Houp-

pert reiterates the addition of mandatory drug laws that have led to more arrests and prosecutions

which leave courts jammed and incarceration rates skyrocketing.

In Chapter 3, Houppert describes the state of Louisiana where residents organize their lives as

pre- and post-Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005, and the author argues that

it allowed the nation to see the multitude of problems that faced the poor within this city. Houppert

104 Criminal Justice Review 39(1)