Book Review: The Right to Counsel in American Courts

The story of the right to counsel in criminal cases comprises afascinating chapter in the annals of Anglo-American jurisprudence.One might think that the basic principles would be reasonablyclear. Our whole concept of law enforcement as an accusatoryprocess, our theory of the trial as a contest staged before judgeand jury, our traditional concern test a powerful state overwhelman isolated citizen, our feeling for the worth and indeed the salvationof the individual human being - to say nothing of the complexitiesof criminal law and procedure - all would seem to demandthat the accused in a criminal case always and at all timesbe furnished with the aid of counsel. How else can the accused playhis allotted role in the criminal process? How else can the protectionstheoretically accorded to the individual be realized in practice?Is not the spectacle of an accused trying to hold up his endof the balance, alone and unaided, an obvious mockery of the wholecriminal process