In 1963, in a case called Gideon v. Wainwright, the United States Supreme Court held for the first time that a person accused of a crime in a state court has a right to counsel secured by the United States Constitution. Before that decision, a defendant’s federal constitutional right to an attorney in a criminal proceeding applied only in federal cases, by virtue of the Sixth Amendment. In Gideon, the Court applied the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause to extend the same right to state criminal cases. Ever since Gideon, when defendants in state criminal prosecutions cannot afford to hire counsel, the state is obligated to provide counsel for them.  

In Massachusetts, the agency responsible to make sure that happens is the Committee for Public Counsel Services, or CPCS. The Chief Counsel for CPCS is Anthony Benedetti, an attorney who himself served as a public defender before becoming General Counsel and, in 2010, Chief Counsel of this important agency.  

I recently had the privilege of interviewing Anthony for Higher Callings. In the interview, he provided a close look into some of the most significant challenges facing the agency, its key successes, and the work it has been doing in some of the most important battles of recent times, including the fight against systemic racism, the movement to defund the police, the efforts to release thousands of prisoners to avoid the spread of COVID-19 in jails, and the current crisis facing homeless citizens in the tent city in Boston known as “Mass and Cass.” 

I was inspired by Anthony’s passion for caring for and protecting the rights of the poor who are caught up in an overburdened and often impersonal legal system, and am pleased to offer this episode of Higher Callings to shed light into the critically important work of an agency that few citizens, and even few lawyers, understand.

You can find more information about CPCS at the agency's website, https://www.publiccounsel.net/

The Higher Callings website can be found here: https://www.podpage.com/higher-callings/