The Virginia Fair Trial Project (VFTP) formerly the Virginia Indigent Defense Coalition believes that all people, whatever their financial circumstances, are entitled to fair trials and equal justice. VFTP also believes that the public interest is best served by a criminal justice system that operates reliably to convict the guilty and protect the innocent. VFTP’s mission is to realize these ideals by improving the quality of defense for Virginia citizens unable to afford a lawyer.

VFTP will conduct a comprehensive public awareness campaign to highlight the problems in Virginia’s indigent defense system. Working with diverse community groups and individual citizens, VFTP will propose sensible remedies to these problems, such as enhancing standards and establishing accountability for appointed counsel and increasing resources available to poor defendants in the juvenile and criminal justice systems in Virginia. VFTP will become a major force in moving Virginia to fulfill the unkept promises of Gideon v. Wainwright* and the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.