On March 18, 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that states must provide a lawyer to a criminal defendant who cannot afford one. The case, Gideon v. Wainwright, began with a handwritten petition from a Florida prison inmate named Clarence Earl Gideon.
Gideon was charged with breaking into the Bay Harbor Pool Room in Panama City, Florida, sometime between midnight and 8 a.m. on June 3, 1961. Under Florida law that was a felony. He had an eighth grade education and had spent years drifting in and out of prisons for nonviolent crimes, according to a case summary from the federal judiciary.
"I am entitled to be represented by Counsel"
At his trial in Bay County, Gideon asked the judge to appoint a lawyer. The judge refused, because Florida law allowed appointed counsel only in capital cases. Gideon answered, "The United States Supreme Court says I am entitled to be represented by Counsel," according to the Supreme Court's published opinion.
He was wrong about the law as it stood. In Betts v. Brady, decided in 1942, the Court had held that states did not have to appoint counsel unless special circumstances existed, such as illiteracy or an unusually complicated case. Gideon represented himself. He made an opening statement, cross examined witnesses and argued his innocence. The jury convicted him, and he was sentenced to five years in state prison.
From prison, he wrote a handwritten petition asking the Supreme Court to hear his case. The National Archives holds his petition for a writ of certiorari, which it dates to January 5, 1962.
A unanimous Court
The justices agreed to hear the case and appointed Abe Fortas, a Washington lawyer who later joined the Court himself, to argue for Gideon. The case was argued on January 15, 1963.
Justice Hugo Black wrote for the Court, overruling Betts. He held that the Sixth Amendment right to counsel is fundamental and applies to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. "Lawyers in criminal courts are necessities, not luxuries," Black wrote. He added that "any person haled into court, who is too poor to hire a lawyer, cannot be assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided for him."
The retrial, and what came after
The ruling did not set Gideon free. It gave him a new trial. On August 5, 1963, he was tried again in Panama City, this time with a local lawyer, W. Fred Turner, at his side. Turner went after the state's key eyewitness, Henry Cook, and showed that Cook had lied about not having a criminal conviction. The jury deliberated for about an hour and acquitted Gideon, according to Wikipedia's biography.
The effect reached well beyond one pool hall. About 2,000 people were freed in Florida as a result of the decision, and Florida began requiring public defenders in all of its circuit courts, Wikipedia's account of the case notes. The decision created a need for public defenders, who had been rare before it. Journalist Anthony Lewis told the story in his 1964 book "Gideon's Trumpet," and Henry Fonda played Gideon in a 1980 television film.
Gideon died in Fort Lauderdale on January 18, 1972, at 61. His headstone carries a line from a letter he wrote to Fortas, "I believe that each era finds an improvement in law for the benefit of mankind."
For defense lawyers, Gideon is the starting point. It is why a public defender is in the room at an arraignment, and why bar groups later set standards for public defender training and caseloads. For a look at a lifetime spent on the defense side of the courtroom, read our profile of Fred Haddad and his 50 years of trying cases. It is the kind of history defense attorney Daniel Rosenberg and the Two Taps legal panel of Michael Dye and Lloyd Golburgh come back to on the show.
Two Taps News stories summarize reporting and the analysis discussed on Two Taps and Friends. They are not legal advice. Read our standards.
