...bottles of Coca Cola, twelve cans of beer, about five dollars from the cigarette machine and sixty dollars from the juke box were stolen from Bay Harbor Poolroom which belonged to Ira Strickland Jr. A twenty-two year old resident that lived close by, Henry Cook, told the police that he saw Gideon get into a cab after walking out of the pool hall with a bottle of wine and pockets filled with coins. Consequently, Gideon was arrested in a nearby tavern and ordered to stand trial. On August 4, 1961, Clarence Earl Gideon appeared for trial before Judge Robert L. McCrary, Jr. in the Circuit Court of the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit of Florida for Bay County. The trial transcript begins as follows: (Lewis P9) The Court: The next case on the docket is the case of...
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...given a trial in front of a jury and he represented himself, he was eventually convicted of stealing a small amount of money and other items from a bar in Florida. He appealed his sentence of five years and tried to appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States where he argued the 14th Amendment causes the 6th Amendment to be applicable in State courts. He was eventually awarded another trial when he hired a real attorney who was able to discredit eyewitness testimonies and he got Gideon off with just a slap on the wrist. The suit that Gideon filed against Wainwright overturned Betts v. Brady, which now allowed the 6th Amendment to be used in state cases too and not just federal. Gideon v. Wainwright, also pushed the right to an attorney to all felony cases. Gideon v. Wainwright caused a tighter enforcement of the rights citizens hold, this case allowed an attorney to be provided for all cases and just specific cases. All State courts are required to have a public defender who was trained in all aspect of the legal system, he has to be a good lawyer. The defendants also are required to have access to the defense counsel, even if they can not afford one they have to be provided with one, all people are innocent until proven...
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...THE ARGUMENT FOR A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO REPRESENTATION AT BAIL HEARINGS IN ALL CRIMINAL CASES IN STATE COURT The right to legal representation is generally accepted in the United States as a Constitutional right guaranteed to everyone. The Supreme Court promised the right to counsel to “ any person haled into court” in the infamous Gideon v Wainwright case. This case was instrumental in advancing the rights of indigent defendants through its proclamation that the Sixth Amendment right to counsel in criminal proceedings should also apply to State Courts. However, Gideon’s promise to counsel has yet to completely guarantee equal access to justice when first appearing at judicial proceedings in state courts. Although defendants who can afford lawyers will usually hire one from the onset of a criminal proceeding, the right to counsel for indigent defendants (i.e. a state-provided attorney) is interpreted as attaching at varying stages of a prosecution in different states. Only eight states guarantee indigent defendants the right to legal counsel at the initial bail hearing. Representation at the initial bail hearing is critical as a lawyer’s intervention is crucial for obtaining a defendant’s release and for protecting a defendant’s due process right (guaranteed in the Fourteenth amendment) against an unreasonable denial of liberty during pretrial detention. The lack of counsel in pretrial proceedings can result in numerous consequences; some include a high number of pleas...
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