Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, spoke at a luncheon organized by The Constitution Project Wednesday.

The aim of the events and panels surrounding the project were to examine the groundbreaking case of Strickland v. Washington, in which a man's Sixth Amendment right to having proper defensive council was not upheld and ultimately led to his death penalty sentence.

The case took place in 1984, where the now retired O'Connor swayed her colleagues into the case's conclusion that the defendant's death sentence was unlawful due to the ineffective lawyer assigned to his case.

Jonathan Groner, one of the organizers of The Constitution Project, says the purpose of the event was to re-examine the case and determine if over 20 years later, any changes had been made in the court appointed legal defense system.

"It's about a lawyer providing inadequate council to his client," Groner said.

"We want everyone in the criminal justice system to come together and start a dialogue to see if the implications after Strickland are still working today."

O'Connor spoke about the importance of having a court appointed attorney to do everything possible to fully represent the client, in their guilt or innocence, especially with the looming fear of the death penalty still a concern in 34 states.

"The adequacies of council issues are obviously more important in a death penalty case than say, a petty theft case," she said. "It is not surprising that there is much discussion going on about Strickland, which is about the death penalty. The Supreme Court offered a new ground in providing assistance in council with this case, as well as others. Our goal in any criminal case is justice, and the only way we can achieve justice is by applying the rule of law."

O'Connor spent over 25 years serving on the Supreme Court and has done extensive work with trying to make cases involving the death penalty as few as possible, including ruling it unconstitutional to execute juveniles. Her vote has been vital in swinging other issues with the death penalty such as abortion.

She offered a fairly simple solution to the lack of adequate public defenders in the U.S. by offering to stop underpaying them.

"We need to do a better job of training lawyers," O'Connor said. "We need to set up an office of qualified lawyers for the public and pay them what they deserve."

State Senator Rodney Ellis, is the leader of the Indigent Defense Reform efforts in Texas. He agreed with O'Connor's potential solutions to the lack of decent public defenders.

"She had really good ideas, and as a state legislator from Texas, I'm willing to try and start a pilot program and even call it the O'Connor program," he said.

Aside form the keynote address, the Constitution Project held multiple panel discussions to evaluate the effectiveness of Strickland and the upcoming federal and state projects to protect the right to effective legal council.