What is the role of a professional lawyer in a criminal trial?

The accused in a criminal trial occupies a precarious position. He is the central figure in the proceeding. As the chief protagonist, the defendant, generally a poor, uneducated, sometimes illiterate person, is entitled to the "assistance" of a well-educated member of the professional bar. "The right to defend is given directly to the accused; for it is he who suffers the consequences if the defense fails.... The counsel provision supplements this design ...[of the Sixth Amendment] ... It speaks of the "assistance" of counsel, and an assistant, however expert, is still an assistant." Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806, 819-20, 95 S.Ct. 2525, 2533, 45 L.Ed.2d 562 (1975). Although, in form, the accused is the principal and the attorney the assistant, ² in practice disparate educational, economic, and experiential backgrounds invert this relationship. ³ The criminal defendant, fighting on unfamiliar terrain, is forced to rely completely on the

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