law had been violated. The dispute of this case was whether the state of Florida violated Gideon’s’ sixth amend-ment right to counsel. In Gideon’s case this clause was reinforced by the fourteenth amendment. Gideon was not provided with assis-tance of counsel for his criminal defense. The case took place on January 15, 1963. -Molly Gonzales & Nick Abraham

On June 3, 1961 a burglary oc-curred at the Bay Har-bor Pool Room in Pa-nama City, Florida. The burglar broke into the building by smash-ing a window and then proceeded to smash a cigarette machine and a jukebox and took money from both. Wit-nesses reported seeing a man by the name of Clarence Earl Gideon in the poolroom earlier that morning and po-lice followed up on the lead. Soon after, Mr. Gideon was found nearby with alcohol and money in his pock-

ets and the police ar-rested him for breaking and entering. While in jail Gideon studied law and

discovered that his right to due process of

Due to the fact that Mr. Gideon was a vagrant he did not have the funds to hire a lawyer and therefore asked the court to appoint him with one. Gideon reasoned that he should be ap-pointed a lawyer because

the sixth amendment states that everyone is entitled to a lawyer. The judge, Robert McCrary Jr., denied Gideon’s request and said that a lawyer would only be appointed to a defendant who was charged with a capital

crime. With his request denied, Gideon was forced to defend himself in court without a lawyer and due to lack of knowl-edge and experience was not able to adequately defend himself. Due to his poor defense, Gideon

Caption describing picture or graphic.

G i d e o n C h a r g e d f o r b r e a k i n g a n d E n t e r i n g

6 T H A M E N D -M E N T

In all criminal prosecu-tions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which dis-trict shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be in-formed of the nature and cause of the accu-sation; to be con-fronted with the wit-nesses against him; to have compulsory proc-ess for obtaining wit-nesses in his favor, and to have the Assis-tance of Counsel for his defense

G i d e o n ’ s R e q u e s t R e j e c t e d

C A T T ’ S C O U R T C A S E P E R I O D 1

Gideon v. Wainwright 1963

April, 2006

1 4 T H A M E N D M E N T

1. All persons born or natural-ized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privi-leges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protec-tion of the laws.

Clarence Earl Gideon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Clarence_Earl_Gideon

(Cont. on page 2)

was found guilty of breaking and entering and petty larceny. Gideon was then sen-tenced to five years in a Florida prison. Once in jail, he wrote to an FBI office in Florida, but was denied help. January 1962 he mailed a petition to the Supreme Court asking the nine justices to con-sider his complaint against . The Supreme

Court, in reply, agreed to hear his appeal. The case was called Gideon v. Cochran. The case's original name, Gideon v. Cochran, was changed to Gideon v. Wainwright, after Louie L. Wainwright replaced H.G. Cochran as the director of the Florida Division of Corrections, thus changing the trial’s name to the more com-monly known Gideon v.

second trial. On August 5, 1963 the retrial occurred, Where Turner discredited eyewitnesses and exposed Gideon’s innocence. Henry Cook’s original ac-cusation towards Gideon was disproved by Turner’s statement from the cab driver who drove Gideon to the bar where he was arrested. The cab driver

As a result of Gideon’s original trial, 2,000 convicts were re-leased in Florida because the state government did not have the time or the money for retrials of these convicts. Although they were free, Gideon was still trapped within the law. W. Fred Turner was the new lawyer for his

said that Gideon was not carrying alcohol, disprov-ing Cook’s accusation. After one hour from the beginning of the session, Gideon’s trial was acquitted. He resumed life and got married. January 18th, 1972 he died in Fort Lauderdale at the age of 61.

man with no training in law cannot go up against a trained law-yer and win”. Jacob’s retort was that the is-sue was a state issue and not a federal issue. Jacob said thousands of convictions would have to be reconsid-ered if the law changed.

During the next two months Gideon’s trial was played out. It was concluded in March 18th, 1973. Unani-mously the jury agreed that Gideon’s convic-tion should be set aside.

On January 15th, 1963, Gideon v. Wainwright began. Gideon’s assigned rep-resentative was Abe Fortas. Arguing against Gideon was Bruce Jacob, an assis-tant Flordian attorney general. Fortas’s argu-ment was clear and simple, “a common

A unanimous Supreme Court ruled in Gideon's favor & rec-ognized a constitutional guar-antee that all accused persons have a right to be represented by a lawyer.

G i d e o n ’ s r e q u e s t r e j e c t e d ( c o n t . )

G i d e o n ’ s R e t r i a l

P a g e 2

G i d e o n v . W a i n w r i g h t T r i a l

Accused of stealing by Cook

• $65 • 12 beers • 12 cokes • Some wine But was later discredited by Turner

G i d e o n v . W a i n w r i g h t

"you can-not have a fair trial without counsel."

Justice Hugo Black required

all American courts to make a lawyer avail-able to any per-son charged with a felony if they could not pay for a law-yer.

-Matt Marshall & Daniel Sanchez

-Mike Mcmahon & Breanna Van Otterloo

-Brian Adsit & Kristen Graham

As a group we felt the Supreme Court came to the proper decision. Their decision clarifies and enforces the con-stitution, and defines a fair trial. It is only fair to have a retrial after the courts came to the initial conclusion. Gideon did not deserve to be in jail serving his time, and rightfully was acquitted.

S t u d e n t s ’ r e c a p