Overlooked Guidelines: Using the Guidelines to Address the Defense Need for Time and Money

Authors

Meredith Martin Rountree
Robert C. Owen

Abstract

In 2003, Professor Eric M. Freedman, Reporter for the revised ABA Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases, observed that one of the ABA Guidelines’ central virtues was to recognize that the death penalty is expensive. Fairness in the application of the ultimate punishment requires governments to develop systems to allocate essential resources, like compensation for counsel and funds for experts and investigators. Ten years later, this Article revisits Professor Freedman’s observation by exploring the question of resources and urging counsel to increase their use of the ABA Guidelines in fighting for the irreducible minima of reasonably effective representation: time and money.

Recommended Citation

Rountree, Meredith Martin and Owen, Robert C. (2013) "Overlooked Guidelines: Using the Guidelines to Address the Defense Need for Time and Money," Hofstra Law Review: Vol. 41: Iss. 3, Article 6.
Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/hlr/vol41/iss3/6