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Clarence Earl Gideon- Age 51
Panama City, Florida
June 3, 1961
Break-in at Pool Room
Stolen Change in Juke Box/Vending Machine
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- Gideon could not afford a lawyer
Requests a lawyer at his trial
Denied lawyer/ Defends Himself
Eyewitness points out Gideon
Gideon found guilty
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Florida law did not require lawyer
Only if it’s capital offense
Betts v. Brady (1942)
States not required to appoint lawyer
Only if special circumstances proven
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Appeals to Supreme Court
Claims 6th and 14th Amendments violated
Right to a lawyer (6th)
Denied due process of law by Florida
SCOTUS agrees to hear case
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Did Florida violate right to a lawyer and due
process?
Court votes 9-0 in Gideon’s favor
Florida did violate rights
Right to counsel is a fundamental right
Overturns Betts v. Brady
Justice Hugo Black: “lawyers in criminal
courts are necessities, not luxuries”
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Gideon given new trial with lawyer
Found not guilty
Lead to an expansion of rights for accused
Right to a lawyer is fundamental
Help establish public defenders
RFK’s
Comments
"If an obscure Florida convict
named Clarence Earl Gideon
had not sat down in prison with
a pencil and paper to write a
letter to the Supreme Court,
and if the Supreme Court had
not taken the trouble to look
for merit in that one crude
petition among all the bundles
of mail it must receive every
day, the vast machinery of
American law would have gone
on functioning undisturbed.
But Gideon did write that letter.
The Court did look into his case
and he was retried with the
help of a competent defense
counsel, found not guilty, and
released from prison after two
years of punishment for a crime
he did not commit, and the
whole course of American legal
history has been changed."