The Right to Counsel in Boston, 1963-1983

Abstract

It was not until relatively recently in United States history that the right to counsel for the accused, embodied in the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, was interpreted as a government responsibility. When the Supreme Court of the United States announced in 1963 that the states had to provide attorneys to indigent defendants in most serious criminal cases, state and local governments struggled to fund and coordinate the effort. Simultaneously, a legal services movement had reemerged for the civil legal needs of poor populations. This thesis provides a history of the progress of legal representation in both the criminal and civil contexts in Boston, Massachusetts from 1963 to 1983. It documents and examines the role of the state legislature, the Supreme Judicial Court, the Boston Bar Association, and gives special emphasis to the indispensable contributions by national entities and federally-funded legal service providers.