What do Public Defenders Do?
Public defenders are lawyers who defend people charged with a crime and cannot pay for her/his services. Instead public defenders are normally reimbursed by the state, usually at a lesser amount than the lawyer would make in private practice. The necessity of providing counsel to those charged with a crime was not reinforced until the 1960s. The current public defense system is due to the Supreme Court case Gideon v. Wainwright.
