The Supreme Court first addressed an indigent defendant's request for services other than counsel in Griffin v. Illinois, 351 US 12 (1956). In finding for the defendant, the Court stated what has become known as the equality principle, i.e., that "all people charged with a crime must, so far as the law is concerned, 'stand on an equality before the bar of justice in every American court.'" This principle was replaced in Ake v. Oklahoma, 470 US 68 (1985) by a test that said due process did not entitle an indigent to equality but to the basic tools of an adequate defense. After discussing the problems arising from each of these theories, the author lays out a new approach focusing on whether a defendant's lack of access to expert services would prevent the jury from hearing all of the relevant evidence on contested issues.