Gideon v. Wainwright

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, Florida. On the morning of 3 June 1961, after a patrol officer discovered that the pool hall had been burglarized, eyewitnesses led police to arrest Gideon. He professed his innocence, but two months later, Gideon was put on trial for burglary. A 1942 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Betts v. Brady, which held that states need appoint counsel only to those indigent criminal defendants facing the death penalty, was still the law of the land. Gideon defended himself without benefit of legal counsel. Predictably, he was found guilty. He was sentenced to five years in prison.

Gideon applied to the Florida Supreme Court for a writ of habeas corpus, asking to be freed because he had been denied his right to counsel. When the state supreme court denied Gideon's petition, he submitted a five-page handwritten appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Warren Court had been looking for an opportunity to overturn Betts v. Brady, and it agreed to hear Gideon's appeal. The Court appointed Abe Fortas, one of the best-known appellate lawyers in the country (and later a Supreme Court justice himself) to argue the case.