Implications & EffectsThe Gideon decision meant states had to fund attorneys for all indigent defendants charged with felonies. No previous Supreme Court ruling had so broadly decided that counsel was so fundamental for a fair trial.
|
"The Gideon case stands as a milestone in American constitutional law because
it affirms a principle that is basic
in a free and just society." -Abe Krash, an assistant |
|
Immediate ConsequencesEvery state created some form of an indigent defense system (by January 1964)
2,000 Florida prisoners were released or retried (within a year)
Gideon was retried with counsel and acquitted (August 1963)
Many states already had public defender systems or acceptable alternatives, but not all. Gideon v. Wainwright made this a mandate for every state.
|
Constitutional ImplicationsBefore Gideon there was a large body of Supreme Court case law to the effect that the states were free to experiment when it came to procedure in criminal cases. Gideon was the first of many cases, decided in the 1960’s (Duncan v. Louisiana was one) which put an end to that earlier concept and made it clear that the federal model, and the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th Amendments were applicable to the states. Now the procedure in federal courts and states is basically the same, and there is [no] room for experimentation that existed before Gideon and the other cases which required the states to follow federal rules. The Sixth Amendment ("In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right . . . to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence") and the Bill of Rights originally only applied to the federal government. Gideon and other twentieth-century decisions interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment ("No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States") as applying the Bill of Rights to the states. If there was any doubt before, now it was certain that federal rights must be recognized by states. [10] |
|
- 1. Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (Mar. 18, 1963), in "Gideon v. Wainwright," The Oyez Project, accessed March 19, 2014.
- 2. Abe Krash, "Architects of Gideon: Remembering Abe Fortas and Hugo Black," The Champion, March 1998.
- 3. Nathan Morse, Bay County Public Defender's Office, photograph, December 21, 2013.
- 4. Tallahassee Democrat, Governor Farris Bryant Addressing Joint Assembly of the Florida Legislature, photograph, April 2, 1963, Florida Memory, State Archives of Florida, Tallahassee, FL.
- 5. Gideon's Trumpet: The Poor Man and the Law, narrated by Martin Agronsky, CBS, 1964.
- 6. Lynn Neary, "After 50 Years, a State of Crisis for the Right to Counsel," NPR Talk of the Nation, podcast audio, March 19, 2013, accessed January 25, 2014.
- 7. Defending Gideon, directed by Rebecca Richman Cohen, New Media Advocacy Project, 2013.
- 8. Gideon's Trumpet: The Poor Man.
- 9. Bruce R. Jacob, e-mail interview by the author, Tallahassee, FL, March 18, 2014.
- 10. Abe Krash, telephone interview by the author, Tallahassee, FL, May 19, 2014; Samuel Wiseman, telephone interview by the author, Tallahassee, FL, May 16, 2014.
- 11. Ron Fridell, Gideon v. Wainwright: The Right to Free Counsel (Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish, 2007).