1. Gideon v. Wainwright The Right to Legal Counsel
SS.7.C.3.12 Analyze the significance and outcomes of
landmark Supreme Court cases including, but not limited to…
Gideon v. Wainwright…
The Right to Legal Counsel

2. Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall:
enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed…
…and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation;
to be confronted with the witnesses against him;
to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor,
and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.”

3. What Do You Think? Which 6th Amendment right is most important?
Right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed…
Right to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation;
Right to be confronted with the witnesses against him;
Right to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor,
Right to have the Assistance of Counsel for defense

4. Right to Legal Counsel: Gideon v. Wainwright
Today’s case will look at:
Right to Legal Counsel: Gideon v. Wainwright

5. Facts of the Case: Gideon v. Wainwright
After being arrested in Panama City, Florida in 1961 and accused of breaking and entering a pool hall and stealing money from vending machines, Mr. Gideon was charged with a felony.
In trial court, Mr. Gideon appeared without funds for an attorney and asked the judge to appoint a lawyer to represent him as he could not afford one.
The judge said he could not appoint an attorney because Florida law only allowed for the appointment of free legal counsel to persons charged with crimes that could lead to the death penalty.

6. Facts of the Case: Gideon v. Wainwright
Mr. Gideon represented himself in the trial court and was found guilty. He was sentenced to five years in a Florida state prison.
The Florida Supreme Court denied Gideon’s petition for relief.
Mr. Gideon then wrote a handwritten note to the US Supreme Court and they agreed to hear his case.

7. Question Before the Court:
Did the state court's failure to appoint counsel (an attorney) for Gideon violate his right to a fair trial and due process of law as protected by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments?

8. Outcome: Gideon v. Wainwright
Yes.
The US Supreme Court held in a unanimous decision (9-0) that the right of an indigent defendant in a criminal trial to have the assistance of counsel is a fundamental right essential to a fair trial.
Before the 1930s, the Supreme Court interpreted this language as only forbidding the state from denying a defense attorney at trial. From the 1930s on, however, the Court interpreted the amendment as requiring the state to provide defense attorneys in capital trials (see Powell v. Alabama [1932]).  In Gideon, the Court took this jurisprudence further, ruling that the Sixth Amendment requires states to provide defense attorneys to any indigent criminal defendant charged with a felony (generally a crime punishable by imprisonment of more than one year). 

9. Quoting the Case
“From the very beginning, our state and national constitutions and laws have laid great emphasis on…safeguards designed to assure fair trials…in which every defendant stands equal before the law. This noble ideal cannot be realized if the poor man charged with crime has to face his accusers without a lawyer to assist him.” Justice Hugo Black, 372 US 335 (1963)

10. Significance
The Court held that the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of counsel is a fundamental right essential to a fair trial.