Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 US 335 (1963)
The US Supreme Court held that indigent defendants in criminal cases have a Sixth Amendment right to court-appointed counsel. It pretty much was the cause of the establishment of the Public Defender system in American courts.
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Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)
Those who cannot hire a lawyer shall have counsel provided for them.
Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 US 335 (1963)Gideon v. Wainwright is a landmark US Supreme Court case that incorporated the Sixth Amendment right to counsel in criminal proceedings to the states via the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause. In this case, the Court ruled emphatically that indigent defendants were entitled to court-appointed lawyers at critical stages of prosecution, including arraignment and trial.An earlier case, Powell v. Alabama, 287 US 45 (1932) had already extended that right to state defendants in capital (death penalty) cases, but the Supreme Court later allowed the states to exercise case-by-case discretion with regard to providing attorneys for other serious criminal offenses in Betts v. Brady, 316 US 455 (1942).For more information, see Related Questions, below.
Answer this question… Both cases resulted in expanded protections for people accused of crimes.
Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 US 335 (1963)Clarence Earl Gideon served two years of a five year sentence for the original 1961 conviction of "breaking and entering with intent to commit petty larceny," a felony in the state of Florida. Gideon entered prison in August 1961 and was released in August 1963 after the US Supreme Court remanded the case for rehearing. The second jury deliberated only an hour before acquitting Gideon in his second trial.Gideon was a petty criminal who had spent most of the previous three decades in and out of Texas and Missouri state prisons on charges of burglary, stealing, larceny, petty theft and escape. He had also been incarcerated in federal prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for stealing unspecified government property.For more information, see Related Questions, below.