Pro se defense and right to counsel in the United States Supreme Court jurisprudence and a brief view of the role of the Public Defender’s Office in Brazilian criminal procedure system

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss the treatment that the US and the Brazilian legal systems give to the due process of law, specifically two of its integrative elements, the right to technical defense (right to counsel) and the right to self-defense (pro se defense). From the analysis of the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States and the Brazilian legal system, we will establish the similarities and differences between the systems mentioned. Thus, through the readback of ideas, theories and concepts of the literature, we will build a network of information and ideas related to the central theme of the work, with the aim of sedimentary the fundamental basis of theoretical studies. By treating the technical defense as a right available and waivable by its owner, the American legal system, we think, eases the due process of law clause in order to undermine the fundamental rights and guarantees of the accused criminally prosecuted. In turn, when dealing with the right to technical defense as an essential and inseparable element of legal defense and, by extension, of due process in its substantial meaning, Brazilian law allows greater protection to criminal procedural guarantees of the accused. In this environment, the Brazilian State’s commitment transcends mere theoretical statement of the principle of legal defense and find the Public Defender´s Office, an expression and instrument of the democratic regime in that it guarantees to every accused criminally prosecuted, whether poor or not, proper full and free legal assistance.