Justice Under Law: The Gideon Case

it makes no difference how old I am what church I belong to if any the question is very simple the question is I did not get a fair trial Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion no Soldier shall in time of peace be quartered in any house no person shall be deprived of life liberty or property without due process of law the word the Bill of Right deliberately written to be understood but they have not always been understood in the same way one of America's great legal Minds Oliver W Holmes wrote a word is not a crystal trans arent and unchanging it may vary greatly in content according to the circumstances and the time in which it is used the next case on the docket is a case of State of Florida plenty versus Clarence Earl Gideon defendant what says the state are you ready to go to trial in this case state is ready your honor what says lendon are you ready to go to trial your honor I'm not ready for trial why aren't you ready because I do not have a lawyer don't you have a lawyer did you not know that this case was set for trial today yes sir I'm Tri today but if you knew your case was set for trial today why did you not secure counsel and be prepared to go to trial cuz I'm without fund to Har attorney honor I'm going to ask this court to appoint me councel I pres Mr Gideon I'm sorry but this court cannot appoint councel to represent you in this case under the laws of the State of Florida the only time the court can appoint a lawyer to represent a defendant is in a capital case that is a case involving the death penalty the United States Supreme Court says I'm entitled to counsel e would you let the record show that this defendant has requested the court to appoint counsel and that this request has been denied have your seat in the courtroom Mr [Music] Gideon in 1961 170 years after the ratification of the Bill of Rights Clarence Earl Gideon requested that the State of Florida appoint a lawyer to defend him in court ex-convict Wanderer a former Gambler the devoted father of three children and a man with a deep sense of his legal rights I saw Gideon come out of the Bay Harbor pool room with a pint of wine in his hand he made a telephone call at the street corner in a while this taxi picks him up and off he goes you call C buddy yeah I went back to the pool room and saw it had been broken into the front was off the cigarette machine and the money box was lying on the pool table I was a state prosecutor at Mr Gideon's trial the state prosecutor had the duty of representing the State of Florida assembling the evidence and presenting the evidence to the jury you have just heard the testimony of the state's principal witness this witness testified that he saw Mr Gideon in the Harbor pool room this witness's testimony was given under oath it was simple it was direct and it was most damaging to Mr Gideon as a presiding judge in this case it was my duty to see that both sides the state and the defendant had an equal opportunity to present their evidence to the jury it is my opinion that Mr Gideon did a good job in presenting his evidence at this trial well I present in my case the best ability I had I questioned the witnesses made a plead to the jury and I don't think there anybody can walk in the courtroom without being scared to [Music] death have you gentlemen reached the verdict we have your honor could you hand it to the clerk please [Music] [Applause] Mr clerk would you read the verdict please we the jury find the defendant CL C Gideon guilty as charged so say we all so say you all gentlemen yes your honor P ver me call parents one day the state welfare department wrote me to sign release papers on my children I refused they're not int time to let anyone take my children away from me and I was going to fight it every way I knew how I believe all over I was a convict I had a right to have children it was a good prison go I've seen nothing in my life and this bad I was a trusty is [Applause] busy but prison time passed it slow as the days went on I improved my ability as electrician and electric shop but I wasn't about to settle down for good not if I could help it not for 5 years October 30th 1961 to the Supreme Court of the State of Florida i c Gideon inform this court I'm a pper without funds or any possibility of obtaining financial aid I beg this court to listen and act upon my plea petition denied [Applause] January 8th 1962 to the Supreme Court of the United States comes now the petitioner Clarence Earl Gideon a citizen of the UN and proper person and appearing as his own Council petitioner will attempt to show this court that a citizen cannot get a just and fair trial without the aid of counsel it makes no difference how old I am or what color I am or what church I belong to a any the question is very simple the question is I did not get a f trial I requested the court to point me attorney and the court refused all persons having business before The Honorable the Supreme Court of the United States are admonished to on June 4th 1962 the Supreme Court announced in its order of the day that it would hear Gideon's case Andor among the justices who would weigh the arguments was one with a long-standing interest in the problems raised The Honorable Hugo L black 20 years before in 1942 the court had considered the case almost identical to Gideon's bets against Brady Smith bets like Gideon had appealed his case to the Supreme Court the majority opinion in most States it has been the considered judgment that appointment of councel is not a fundamental right essential to a fair trial but three members of the Court descended among them Justice black no man should be deprived of council merely because of his poverty thus the decision in 1942 in the case of Smith Betts in state courts a poor defendant was not entitled to a lawyer except under special circumstances Gideon in his petition 20 years later mentioned no special circumstances he said nothing about being mentally incompetent or illiterate nothing about his case being legally complicated but in June of 1962 the court voted to consider Gideon's case and this meant that they would reconsider the older case bets against Brady after 20 years the Supreme Court might change a it mind Dear Mr Fortress I have been informed by the clerk of the Supreme Court that you were appointed to represent me everything containing to my case is of the highest interest to me and everyone in prison and we will certainly welcome all information about it that is possible sincerely yours Claren ear Gideon that was no question now that Clarence Gideon would have a lawyer represent him appointed as his Council was a prominent Washington attorney later to become himself an associate Justice of the Supreme Court The Honorable Abe forus I received a call from the clerk of the Supreme Court telling me that the court had designated me to act as counsel without fee for Clarence Gideon at the time I knew only that Gideon had been convicted of a felony in the Florida state courts and that the issue involved was the right to counsel opposing Mr forus in the Supreme Court hearings was an Assistant Attorney General of Florida later to join the law department at Deer University in Georgia Mr Bruce R Jacob we argued in the United States Supreme Court that historically the Sixth Amendment right to council meant only that you had the right to have have councel uh at your own expense it did not include the right to have Council appointed for you at State expense we pointed out further to the Supreme Court that throughout history the states have always had the power to enact or adopt their own rules of procedure in criminal trials and we said that if they should require an absolute rule if they should adopt an absolute rule requiring the appointment of councel in all criminal cases this would be intruding upon an area traditionally and historically reserved to the states the 14th Amendment itself spe specifically provides that no state shall deprive a person of life or Liberty without due process of law this means that no state may imprison a person unless he's had a fair trial to have a fair trial a person must be represented by councel whether he is Rich or poor under the bets versus Brady rule a defendant in a state criminal trial had to make a showing of special circumstances in order to be entitled to the appointment of council at State expense in other words he had to show either that he was illiterate or ignorant or in some other way unable to handle his own defense since Gideon had made no showing of special circumstances in his petition before the Florida Supreme Court he was not entitled to relief the plain fact of the matter is that nobody can defend himself when he is on trial Accused by the state of having committed a serious criminal offense as I later said to the Supreme Court upon pun argument of the case I remembered that when Clarence darl one of the great criminal lawyers of all time was accused of crime he immediately went out and hired a lawyer to defend him in our presentation before The Supreme Court we indicated that should the court adopt an absolute rule requiring that Council be appointed in every single criminal case in a state criminal trial uh such a rule would logically have to apply in minor criminal cases as well as in felonies such as robbery and burglary furthermore since the rich man can hire detectives psychiatrists and ballistics experts to assist him in preparing his defense in a criminal case these same benefits should be made available to the poor man at State expense these requirements would create enormous practical difficulties in the states but that cannot deter us and it has not deterred us from doing Justice in the individual case and more than that the time had certainly come when this basic principle of justice that every man accused of serious crime is entitled to counsel the time had come when that basic principle of Justice had to be announced and established lished after hearing the arguments in the case the members of the Supreme Court met in secret for a formal vote how would you have voted what would your decision have been why on March 18th 1963 the decision was announced speaking for a unanimous Court was Justice black from the very beginning of our nation we have laid great emphasis on trials in which every man stands equal before the law this Noble ideal cannot be realized if a poor man charged with crime has to face his accusers without assistance the right of a man to have awyer may not be considered essential in some countries but it is in ours August 5th 1963 just 2 years and one day after his first trial Clarence Gideon was granted a new trial this time with benefit of councel Attorney Fred Turner in his pre-trial investigation had uncovered a surprise witness whose testimony cast grave doubts on the state's case against Gideon a dance in appacha the night before and that he had returned home about Daybreak and that two of his friends had driven him back from appach cour but they let him verdict from his home not guilty so say you all gentlemen yes sir I got I get more money ex-convict Wanderer a former Gambler in prison slang a four time loser and yet this man was able to contribute in a major way to our understanding of the Bill of Rights but what has changed since the Gideon decision the Supreme Court of Florida applied the Gideon rule retroactively granting new trials to hundreds of prisoners releasing others outright the results one year after the Gideon decision more than 1,200 inmates of Florida prisons had been freed a study made 2 years later indicated that surprisingly few only 133% had been returned to prison with new convictions the national average 25% I see you made it old buddy but there were other problems raised during the Gideon hearings which have has been dealt with in a series of historical Supreme Court decisions a suspect is apprehended and [Applause] arrested okay let's go at the police station where he will be booked he must now not only be informed of the charge against him but of his right to remain silent and of his right to a lawyer no longer may he be questioned by the police without legal advice case when brought before the criminal court for arraignment he must again be informed of the charge and of his right to councel however if the defendant cannot afford counsel the judge May pick a lawyer who happens to be in the courtroom the lawyer will not be paid for his Services he will not receive a shred of investigative or expert help in an adjoining room he will exchange a few Hasty words with his new client in many cases the defendant may be advised to plead guilty you feel that he has no other choice I have such assignment of an unpaid lawyer can make a farce of the Bill of Rights everyone knows this the judge the district attorney the assigned lawyer and of course the defendant himself you we guil it can happen and it does happen in some American communities there are are other possibilities in some states full-time public defenders experience trial lawyers paid by the state represent the Indigent in many communities legal aid societies compensate private lawyers for their time and expenses many lawyers throughout the nation represent poor defendants purely out of a sense of public duty the Gideon case together with later Supreme Court decisions marked a turning point for procedures in criminal cases throughout the nation a lawyer must now be assigned a poor defendant as soon as possible after his arrest if he requests one but the question of the quality of Defense still persists a poor defendant is often assigned a lawyer who takes little interest in his case some experts have charged that we have one law for the poor and another law for the rich a defendant with money can afford to hire special investigators ballistic experts handwriting Specialists psychiatrists what of the poor defendant [Music]