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In episode 9 of Supreme Court Briefs, a man can't afford a lawyer, struggles to defend himself in court, gets convicted of a crime he didn't commit, writes a letter, and everything turns out all groovy.
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Reading Through History: The Great Supreme Court Cases
Panama City, Florida
June 3, 1961
Sometime between midnight and 8am, someone breaks into the Bay Harbor Poolroom and steals money from a cash register. One witness reported that they had seen a man named Clarence Earl Gideon walk out of the poolroom at around 5:30 that morning, walking out with a wine bottle and his pockets filled with wads of cash. Gideon, a drifter who spent most of his adult life in and out of different prisons for nonviolent crimes, was an easy target. Police arrested him for breaking and entering and trying to steal.
Well as it turns out, Gideon had no money. Because he couldn’t afford a lawyer, he asked a Florida Circuit Court judge to appoint one for him, claiming the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution guarantees everyone a lawyer. The judge was like, “sorry dude,” and denied his request. Florida law only allowed the court to provide a lawyer if the defendant was charged with a capital offense, or one so serious that death might be the punishment.
And so, Gideon was left to represent himself, and most say he didn’t do that good of a job defending himself. The court found him guilty of the accused crimes and sentenced him to five years in prison. While serving his sentence in a Florida state prison, Gideon began to teach himself law, which made even more confident that his rights were being violated when the Florida Circuit Court refused to provide a lawyer for him. From his prison cell, he hand wrote a letter directly to the Supreme Court. Not only did the Supreme Court actually read his petition, they agreed to actually hear his case.
Gideon’s lawsuit specifically went against the Secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections, who was a dude named H.G. Cochran. However, Cochran went up and done retired, and was replaced by another dude named Louie Wainwright. So Gideon was suing Wainwright. Get it? Gideon v. Wainwright?
Anyway, the Supreme Court was being all nice and assigned Gideon a well established Washington, D.C. lawyer and future Supreme Court justice named Abe Fortas to represent him. As it turns out, the Supreme Court had been waiting for this opportunity. Back in 1932, in Powell v. Alabama, the Court had decided that people accused of crimes should both be notified that they have the right to a lawyer and should be provided one if they can’t afford one. However, this only applied to capital offenses.
And then, ten years later, the Court decided in Betts v. Brady that, unless there were special circumstances, people didn’t have to have a lawyer provided for them by the state.
Well, with Gideon, the Court said THE HECK WITH YOU BETTS. No, not Mr. Betts. Betts v. Brady. They overturned Betts v. Brady.
On March 18, 1963, the Court announced unanimously, in favor of Gideon. It argued that the Sixth Amendment doesn’t point out a difference between capital and noncapital cases. It also said the 14th amendment gave the federal government authority to control state laws that denied 6th amendment rights.
The decision did not free Gideon from prison. Rather, he got a new trial with a new lawyer provided by the government of Florida. The new trial took place August 5, 1963, five months after the Supreme Court. His new lawyer completely discredited the original case against Gideon. The jury found Gideon not guilty after just one hour of deliberation. Gideon was free.
Gideon v. Wainwright further protected the rights of the accused, which the Warren Court would also do again three years later with the Miranda v. Arizona decision. Hey check out that episode if you haven’t already. The decision also greatly expanded the power of the 14th amendment, protecting individual rights against both federal and state laws that threatened them. Sadly, today many states do not provide adequate funding for their public defender systems. As matter of fact, the state of Missouri was recently sued due to this.
