You Have the Right to a Lawyer

There have been a handful of famous fictional attorneys remembered in the history of pop culture, but perhaps the most respected here is Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird". This story is set in the 1930's in Alabama. Atticus Finch plays a lawyer who is determined to get justice for a black man accused of raping a white woman. Despite the backlash of the town against him and his family for defending his client who was considered the wrong color to be innocent in this pre civil rights era.

Atticus pleads for justice based on the facts and not the color of his client and is vilified by the white town for his efforts. Today thanks to the civil rights movement of the 1960's, equality and justice are upheld and the constitutional rights of all defendants are adhered to regardless of skin color. Fictional attorneys such as Atticus Finch can find some comfort in knowing that the price they paid to push for equal rights and justice wasn't done in vain.

The legacy of the civil rights movement however is real and not fictional like Atticus Finch and can be found within the strict adherence the courts have to upholding the constitutional rights of defendants. The right to an attorney is an example of the civil rights legacy. This right was eventually granted equally across the courts after the courts unjustly prosecuted many defendants. These individivuals had no lawyer or the funds to afford one and were likely in hindsight to be innocent men prosecuted because of the their color, low educational level and eco-social status in their communities.

The famous Miranda warnings that offenders are given upon arrest is another way that the criminal justice system attempts to correct the wrongs of the past and ensure that everyone who is arrested is aware of their rights to have a court appointed attorney if they are accused of a crime. The warning is named after Ernesto Miranda who won a landmark case against the state of Arizona when the Supreme Court agreed that his constitutional rights were violated because he did not know he had the right to a court appointed lawyer upon his arrest.
If Atticus Finch's client, the wrongfully accused and apparently innocent Tom, had been allotted these same rights that many people take for granted today, there may not have been a story for the author of "To Kill a Mockingbird" to even tell.

The miscarriage of the justice in the past remains a part of the legacy of the justice system today as at least we have learned from our mistakes and attempt to correct them for the future of a justice system that works, as we the people, intended it to do so, including the right for the accused to have representation by a lawyer regardless of demographics or socio-economic status.