The Supreme Court Case
Clarence Earl GideonPetitioner |
The Warren CourtThe Supreme Court |
Louie L. WainwrightRespondent |
Betts v. Brady (1942)Betts was very similar to Gideon: a poor man could not afford an attorney. Decision: counsel is only guaranteed for indigent defendants charged with capital offenses or cases with special circumstances (illiteracy, mental illness, low intelligence, etc.) |
An appointment of counsel for indigent defendants in criminal cases is not a fundamental right, [or] essential to a fair trial. Justice Hugo Black voted in the dissent and believed counsel was a right for everyone.
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"people accused of crimes who could not afford to hire an attorney" -Alyson Grine [5] |
Why is indigent defense such a major issue?People who are not trained in law, evidence, and criminal court procedure cannot effectively represent themselves in the vast majority of criminal cases. They do not have the ability to conduct legal research, cross-examine witnesses, make proper legal motions, or do many other things that lawyers are trained to do. They are no match for a state prosecutor who is trained in these skills. Major points of debateTaxpayer expenses: states would have the responsibility of funding the defense for thousands of defendants each year. Federalism: some states believed the issue of indigent defense was up to each state. |
Key amendments in questionAmendment 5: "No person shall . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law"
Amendment 6: "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right . . . to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence."
Amendment 14: "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States"
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Abe Fortas (Gideon)Photographer: Yoichi Okamoto [8]
Fortas was one of the best attorneys in the country and was chosen by the Supreme Court to be Gideon's attorney. The appointment of an attorney with Fortas's caliber signaled that the Supreme Court was intrigued by Gideon's side. |
Bruce Jacob (Wainwright)Source: Andrew Cohen [9]
Florida chose Bruce Jacob, one of its assistant attorneys general, to represent Wainwright. Young, inexperienced, and not even fully convinced of the position he had to take, Jacob knew this would be a tough case. |
You cannot have a fair trial without counsel. |
65 percent of all of your prisoners . . . were not represented by counsel. |
This would place a tremendous burden upon the taxpayers. |
Decision
Charges
Gideon imposed an automatic right-to-counsel constitutional requirement for all felony cases. . . . The opinion did not discuss whether the holding applied to misdemeanors as well as felonies. In practice, Gideon only applied to felonies.
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"The right of an indigent defendant in a criminal trial to have the assistance of counsel
is a fundamental right essential to a fair trial, and petitioner's trial and conviction
without the assistance of counsel violated the Fourteenth Amendment."
-Justice Hugo Black, in the Supreme Court Majority Opinion [15]
- 1. Ron Fridell, Gideon v. Wainwright: The Right to Free Counsel (Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish, 2007): 120.
- 2. Missouri Bar, "The 50th Anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright," Missouri Bar, last modified 2013.
- 3. Don Dughi, Portrait of Florida Division of Corrections director Louis L. Wainwright, Jr., photograph, 1973, Florida Memory, State Archives of Florida, Tallahassee, FL.
- 4. Betts v. Brady, 316 U.S. 455 (1942).
- 5. Alyson Grine, "Delivering on Gideon’s Promise: North Carolina’s Efforts to Enhance Legal Representation for the Poor," Popular Government 74, no. 1 (Fall 2008): 7.
- 6. Nancy Daniels, e-mail interview by the author, Tallahassee, FL, January 28, 2013.
- 7. U.S. Const. amend. V, VI, XIV.
- 8. Yoichi Okamoto, Abe Fortas Smokes Cigarette in Meeting, photograph, 1964, Stock Photo IH038600, Corbis Images, New York.
- 9. Andrew Cohen, "The Lawyer Who Won by Losing," Esquire, last modified March 22, 2013, accessed January 18, 2014.
- 10. Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (Mar. 18, 1963), in "Gideon v. Wainwright," The Oyez Project, accessed March 19, 2014.
- 11. Key Constitutional Concepts, produced by Robe Imbriano, PJ Productions, 2006.
- 12. Bruce R. Jacob, "Memories of and Reflections about Gideon v. Wainwright," Stetson Law Review XXXIII (2003): 251.
- 13. "Felony Defendants," Bureau of Justice Statistics, last modified March 16, 2014, accessed March 16, 2014.
- 14. Paul Bergman, "Felonies, Misdemeanors, and Infractions: Classifying Crimes," NOLO: Law for All, last modified 2004, accessed March 15, 2014.
- 15. Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 355 (1963).