<div>First published to mark the fifty-year anniversary of the Supreme Court decision<i>Gideon v. Wainwright</i>, which guaranteed the right to legal counsel for all criminal defendants,<i>Chasing Gideon</i> is “a hugely important book” (<i>New York Law Journal</i>) that gives us a visceral, unforgettable experience of our systemic failure to fulfill this basic constitutional right. Written in the tradition of<i>Gideon’s Trumpet</i>, by the late Anthony Lewis, this is “a book of nightmares,” as Leonard Pitts wrote in the<i>Miami Herald</i>, because it shows that the “‘justice system’ too often produces the opposite of what its name suggests, particularly for its most vulnerable constituents.”<br><br>Following its publication, <i>Chasing Gideon</i>, which ACLU director Anthony Romero said “illustrates the scope and seriousness of the indigent defense crisis,” became an integral part of a growing national conversation about how to reform indigent defense in America, coordinated with an HBO documentary and a website to promote the book and the movie. The effort spread news about<i>Chasing Gideon</i> directly to public defenders offices nationwide and drove a national conversation about what Eric Holder called the “shameful state of affairs” of indigent defense (in the<i>Washington Post</i>).</div>