Kasey Sammis
Case: Gideon v Wainright, 1963
Facts: Clarence Earl Gideon and Louie Lee Wainright, Secretary of the Florida Division of Corrections.
Gideon was charged breaking and entering and intent to commit petty larceny in Florida state court. He appeared before the state Court, informing the Court he was too poor to afford representation and requested that the Court appoint him an attorney. The Court declined to appoint Gideon an attorney, stating that under Florida law, the only time an indigent defendant is entitled to appointed counsel is when he is charged with a capital offense. Gideon was forced to represent himself and with no knowledge of doing so, was found guilty anc sentenced to serve five years in prison. There he filed for suit agains the Secretary of the Florida Division of Corrections, who at the time was H. G. Cochran. Cochran retired and was replace by Louie Lee Wainright before the case was heard by the Supreme Court. Having studied in the prison library, Gideon argued in his appeal that he was denied council, and therefore his Sixth Amendment rights, as applied to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment, were violated.
Issue: Whether the Sixth Amendment constitutional requirement that indigent defendants be appointed counsel
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Application: In the case of Betts v. Brady, Betts was brought to trial on robbery charges and, like Gideon, could not afford an attorney and was refused to be provided with one. He, too, was forced to represent himself and found guilty. While serving his sentence, the Betts filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, with the circuit court, claiming he had been deprived the right to assistance of counsel, guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. His initial petition was rejected, and then he filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus with the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals of Maryland, again asserting he was denied his Fourteenth Amendment constitutional right to be represented by
the lawyer gathered the facts and then presented them in court. They found gideon not guilty and all charges were
Gideon then appealed to the Supreme Court who took his case. They reached a unanimous decision that the state of Florida, by denying Gideon an attorney, had violated his Sixth Amendment right. They said “The Sixth Amendment requires states to provide defense attorneys to any indigent criminal defendant charged with a felony or
Gideon v. Wainwright was a Supreme Court case that approached criminal justice around the mid 1950s and 1960s. In certain states criminals were not receiving fair representation in courts, which violated the Sixth Amendment. It wasn’t until the Supreme Court case Gideon v. Wainwright of 1963 that this issue changed. Gideon v. Wainwright was the most controversial and influential the Supreme Court ever took on, due to the fact that it challenged the very way criminals are incarcerated by the court themselves. Earl Gideon was a man with an eighth-grade education, he ran away from home when he was in middle school.
In the court case, Gil vs Whitford, the major concerns of this particular case was gerrymandering. Gerrymandering, is to favor one party or class by manipulating the boundaries of those involved in the electoral constituent. This case first arose in the year 2011; in Wisconsin. In the state of Wisconsin, two republicans were elected in the states assembly and senate. Soon after that, the redirecting plan began to take place.
Clarence Earl Gideon was falsely accused of burglarizing a cigarette machine and jukebox inside a poolroom. When Gideon was sent to court to receive his sentence, he had no lawyer, therefore he had to defend himself. Despite his valiant efforts, Gideon was sent to 5 years in prison. While there, Gideon filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus hoping to challenge his conviction. His ability to file for a petition is a positive right, so even though he was not given a lawyer, despite his need and right to one, some of his positive rights—filing a petition—were still upheld.
Plaintiff alleges that Defendants Rainone and Nash failed to protect Plaintiff from a “foreseeable inmate assault” and were “deliberate [sic] indifferent to the Plaintiff’s right to be free from inmate assault.” Am. Compl. at 12-21. Plaintiff further contends that Defendants Pugh and Neven conspired against the Plaintiff to “obstruct the due course of justice.”
As the trial came to a close end the jury announced that Clarence Earl Gideon was guilty, and was convicted five years in prison. While being in jail Gideon filed a petition before the Florida Supreme Court declaring that the State of Florida had proclaimed an unfair case trial by denying him his Sixth Amendment the Right to the Assistance of Counsel. The petition sent to the Supreme Court was denied. Next, Gideon did not fall back; he appealed his case to the U.S Supreme Court claiming that putting him on trial without a lawyer was unfair due to the fact that it denied him due process of law against the 14th Amendment. The U.S Supreme Court came to a conclusion to review Gideon’s case, which
Gideon sued Louie L. Wainwright for habeas corpus. The decision was by the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren that protected rights of accused criminals and extended the guaranteed the bill of Rights to state actions. Failure of the state to provide counsel for a defendant charged with a felony violated the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Gideon began a life of crime at a young age.
Gideon went through all of the procedures that an attorney would in the process of his trial. He made an opening statement, questioned witnesses, and appealed to the jury. However, in spite of Gideon’s representation of self, the jury reached a guilty verdict. Because he had been in prison before and had a previous record his sentence was more severe than the usual sentence for burglary. While in prison Gideon who was somewhat illiterate took advantage of the Law Library by writing his own writ of certiorari.
Wainwright Supreme Court Case,” Clarence Earl Gideon was accused of breaking into a bar in Florida. At his trial, he did not have an attorney because he could not afford one and the judge refused to appoint one to him. Therefore, he had to represent himself in court. He was sentenced to five years in prison in Florida after his trial. But, in prison, he wrote to the Supreme Court about his situation and how it wasn’t fair.
Ultimately, Crawford used his Sixth Amendment rights to his own advantage during this trial by denying a defense attorney and representing
The problem arose when the police officers said they had not advised Miranda of his right to an attorney. Miranda’s lawyer was concerned that his Sixth Amendment Right had been violated. This case was noticed by the ACLU and was taken to the Supreme Court. This case raised issues within the Supreme Court on the rights of Criminal Defendants.
Betts vs Brady stated that the states had their own right to determine whether the person on trial deserved to have legal representation or not. Courts, during the period of Betts vs Brady, only appointed free attorneys under the terms of “special cases”. After being granted a new trial, Gideon chose a local lawyer to represent him and, within an hour, the jury found him “not guilty” of his crime. The ruling of this case went on to overturn the Betts vs Brady outline for an
Wainwright illustrated the importance of personal rights guaranteed by the constitution. This case began when Clarence Gideon was denied a court appointed lawyer to represent him in a petty crime case. Gideon, unable to afford his own lawyer, was unable to adequately defend himself and consequently was convicted. However, he was undeterred. Gideon then wrote a letter to the Supreme Court to overturn this conviction with the 6th Amendment as his evidence of the court’s misconduct.
In the case of the Nuremberg Trials, defendants were put on trial for actions that technically were not illegal at the time they were committed. The charges set against these high ranking members of the Nazi party turned them into test subjects in an unprecedented trial. The Allies had justified the prosecution of the leaders of the Axis powers “on the basis of unique warfare because of its totality and barbarity.” However they tried to justify the trial, it was still unfair and not compatible with the rule of law to prosecute a person for criminal conduct when the person could not have known that his act was illegal due to the fact that the law was not passed or created yet.