San Jacinto County prosecuted nearly 300 misdemeanor cases in 2023. In this poor region, nestled in the piney woods of East Texas, many defendants were likely eligible for a government-paid lawyer. Yet the county reported it had provided an attorney to just nine people.

Nearly 400 miles to the northeast, Wilbarger County, too, had about 300 misdemeanors that year. It assigned counsel to 15 defendants.

And on the state’s far eastern edge, Shelby County, the poorest of the three, took on 307 cases. Nine defendants were granted court-appointed lawyers.

The right to a criminal defense lawyer is so ingrained in the American idea of justice that fans of TV police dramas can recite these two lines from the Miranda rights by memory: You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you.

But in much of Texas, that right is routinely denied. Every year, more than half of rural Texans accused of misdemeanors are left to represent themselves — five times the rate of defendants in urban areas, according to estimates from the Texas Indigent Defense Commission, which is tasked by state statute with ensuring the right to an attorney is protected.