Actually, US law requires that anyone who cannot afford an attorney be provided with one. One of the members of my Library Board is a member of the Public Defender's office and from roughly March to June he poured all he had into defending a couple of indefensible 18-year-olds. I mean, they videotaped themselves planning and all but committing a nasty, brutal stabbing murder of a classmate. It took A LOT out of Dave, so much so that his father was worried about Dave's health.

Both got life without parole, by the way. And they were lucky at that.