Legal Question in Constitutional Law in New Mexico

Re: Help Please

Anyone who is charged with a crime and could be sentenced to time behind bars -- and who proves that he is indigent -- is entitled to have a lawyer appointed to represent him at public expense. This right is not limited to those accused capital offenses. Many states will provide appointed attorneys even where the defendant risks only probation or a heavy fine.

I'm not sure what you mean by "social and individual limitations". The only such criterion that matters is whether the defendant is indigent.

The quality of appointed counsel varies widely from state to state. Most indigent defendants are represented by a public defender -- a government employee who is assigned to represent many such defendants. Most public defenders are very good lawyers but they have crushing workloads and cannot give each case as much time as the case requires. The problem with having a public defender is thus related more to quantity (of time) than to quality.

Often the state will appoint a private attorney and pay her to represent the defendant. This happens in some jurisdictions that don't have public defenders or that have too few. It also happens when the public defender's office has a conflict of interest. Many larger jurisdictions have multiple public defender offices for such conflict cases, but there are times when all of them have conflicts and a private attorney is necessary.

Some jurisdictionss -- mostly in the southeast -- are only willing to pay a small amount even for capital cases, and no attorney could effectively defend such a case given such meager resources. The level of protection defendants receive in such places is often so bad that it violates their constitutional rights. Other jurisdictions are willing to pay appointed lawyers a living wage for such services but none is particularly generous.

The lawyers who take such cases vary in experience and ability. Some are excellent, some are terrible, and most fall somewhere in between. The overall quality of these attorneys generally corresponds to the amount the government is willing to pay for their work -- a good attorney might be willing to take such cases in State A if the state pays reasonably, but an equally good attorney might refuse such work in State B if its pay scale is much lower.

Generally indigent defendants are entitled to appointed counsel in the trial courts and on appeal, but not in subsequent habeas corpus proceedings.

One more point: a defendant who has a right to an appointed attorney can waive that right, and may have a hard time getting it back if he changes his mind later.