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Gideon v. Wainwright - Significance, Court Unanimously Votes To Overturn Betts V. Brady, The Warren Court, Further Readings

Appellant

Clarence Earl Gideon

Appellee

Louie L. Wainwright, Director, Division of Corrections

Appellant's Claim

That the Sixth Amendment requires states to provide legal counsel for impoverished criminal defendants charged with serious offenses.

Chief Lawyer for Appellant

Abe Fortas

Chief Lawyer for Appellee

Bruce R. Jacob

Justices for the Court

Hugo Lafayette Black (writing for the Court), William J. Brennan, Jr., Tom C. Clark, William O. Douglas, Arthur Goldberg, John Marshall Harlan II, Potter Stewart, Earl Warren, Byron R. White

Justices Dissenting

None

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

18 March 1963

Decision

Declaring that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment makes the Sixth Amendment right to counsel binding on the states, the Supreme Court unanimously voted to order that Gideon be assigned a court-appointed lawyer and retried.

Related Cases

  • Betts v. Brady, 316 U.S. 455 (1942).
  • Argersinger v. Hamlin, 407 U.S. 25 (1972).
  • Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984).

Sources

West's Encyclopedia of American Law, Volume 10. Minneapolis, MN: West Publishing, 1998.

Additional Topics

Gideon v. Wainwright - Significance

Gideon v. Wainwright made an enormous contribution to the so-called "due process revolution" going on in the Court led by Chief Justice Warren. Because of the ruling in this case, all indigent felony defendants--like many others charged with misdemeanors--have a right to court-appointed attorneys. Clarence Earl Gideon was a drifter who occasionally worked at the Bay Harbor Poolroom in Panama City,…

Gideon v. Wainwright - Further Readings

Gideon v. Wainwright - Court Unanimously Votes To Overturn Betts V. Brady

Writing for the unanimous Court, Justice Black stated the rationale for overturning Betts in simple terms. This was for him--and apparently for the rest of the Court--a straightforward decision:[R]eason and reflection require us to recognize that in our adversary system of justice, any person haled into court, who is too poor to hire a lawyer, cannot be assured a fair trial unless counsel is provi…

Gideon v. Wainwright - The Warren Court

Earl Warren, the former governor of California, served as chief justice of the Supreme Court from 1953 to 1969. Warren's tenure as chief justice is widely viewed as a period of extraordinary judicial activism, which resulted in landmark Supreme Court cases. One of the most important cases Warren ever presided over was also one of the first cases he presided over as chief justice. The case was Brow…

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