The mission of the Office of the Public Defender for the 23rd Judicial District is to provide zealous and effective representation as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and to ensure the right to counsel for indigent individuals. By way of trained, ethical, and competent public defenders, we will respect the rights and human dignity of our clients and provide them with legal services of the highest quality.
“Lawyers in a criminal case are necessities, not luxuries….[I]n our adversary system of justice, any person haled into court, who is too poor to hire a lawyer, cannot be assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided for him. This seems to us to be an obvious truth.”– Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 344 (1963).