Gideon's Army
Director: Dawn Porter
Year Released: 2013
Rating: 2.0
Three hard-working and socially conscious public defenders in the American South are examined as they work an incredible amount of hours and sacrifice not only better incomes but their personal lives in order to help out poor individuals who need legal representation. As the Innocence Project has shown, many people who are arrested and imprisoned are, in fact, innocent of any wrongdoing, so adequate legal representation is imperative for actual justice to be dispensed, however Porter skews the reality by showing three lawyers who are anomalies: I have never met (or even heard of) a single public defender who has this level of dedication or care (full confession: my mother worked for several lawyers in the past and I have friends who are attorneys). The three lawyers here are exemplary and conscientious - what about the 95% that won't even return phone calls or even try to fight for their clients? There's a lot more to this issue than is presented.
