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Johnson v. Zerbst - Significance, Supreme Court Requires That Counsel Be Appointed, Federal Court Of Appeals

criminal appellant defendants justices

Appellant

John A. Johnson

Appellee

Fred G. Zerbst, Warden, U.S. Penitentiary, Atlanta, Georgia

Appellant's Claim

That the court must appoint lawyers to represent indigent defendants in federal criminal cases.

Chief Lawyer for Appellant

Elbert P. Tuttle

Chief Lawyer for Appellee

Bates Booth

Justices for the Court

Hugo Lafayette Black (writing for the Court), Pierce Butler, James Clark McReynolds, Stanley Forman Reed

Justices Dissenting

Louis D. Brandeis, Charles Evans Hughes, Owen Josephus Roberts, Harlan Fiske Stone (Benjamin N. Cardozo did not participate)

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

23 May 1938

Decision

The Supreme Court held that counsel must be appointed for all defendants in federal criminal trials who cannot afford to hire their own attorneys.

Related Cases

  • Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45 (1932).
  • Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963).
  • Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966).
  • Argersinger v. Hamlin, 407 U.S. 25 (1972).

Sources

The Federal Judiciary Home Page. http://www.uscourts.gov.

Further Readings

  • Bradley, Craig M. The Failure of the Criminal Procedure Revolution. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.
  • Galloway, John. The Supreme Court & The Rights of the Accused. New York, NY: Facts on File, 1973.
  • Garcia, Alfredo. The Sixth Amendment in Modern American Jurisprudence: A Critical Perspective. New York, NY: Greenwood Press, 1992.

Additional Topics

Johnson v. Zerbst - Significance

Johnson raised the standard set in 1932 by Powell v. Alabama, in which the Court held that counsel must be appointed to all indigent criminal defendants facing the possibility of the death sentence in federal court. On 21 November 1934, John Johnson was arrested in Charleston, South Carolina, for possessing and passing four counterfeit $20 bills--a federal offense. At the time, he was enlisted in …

Johnson v. Zerbst - Supreme Court Requires That Counsel Be Appointed

The Supreme Court agreed with Johnson. For much of the nation's history, the right to counsel meant that everyone who could afford to hire a lawyer had a right to do so. Then, in Powell v. Alabama (1932), the Supreme Court had ruled that state courts were obliged--under the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause--to provide counsel for those indigent defendants facing the death penalty. Now, wr…

Johnson v. Zerbst - Federal Court Of Appeals

The U.S. court of appeals is the second level of the federal court system where parties dissatisfied with the U.S. district court's decisions can have them reviewed. The U.S. Supreme Court is the third level of the federal judicial system where parties can have the decisions by the courts of appeals reviewed. The federal courts of appeals also hear and review decisions by the U.S. Tax Court and so…

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over 3 years ago

I apologize. That's what comes from working on memory. After re-reading the case I find that the prosecutor was a state district attorney in the federal court. Your post is correct. Please disregard my last

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over 3 years ago

My point is only a minor one. Johnson was not told that South Carolina would not appoint counsel in non-capital cases. This was a federal case at the trial and appellate levels, not a state case. It was the federal government that declined to appoint counsel. The rule in Johnson v. Zerbst, that counsel must be appointed in non-capital cases did not apply to the states until Gideon v. Wainright.