[From History.com calendar
See Miranda v. Arizona for "Miranda Rights" case preview or full text]
Clarence Gideon is arrested
Clarence Gideon is arrested and charged with breaking into a poolroom in Florida. The appeal of Gideon’s subsequent conviction leads to the establishment of one of the chief principles of American criminal justice. Due to Clarence Gideon’s perseverance, every criminal suspect is entitled to representation by a lawyer.
Gideon, claiming innocence, demanded a lawyer for his trial in 1961. But Florida did not provide lawyers to defendants who could not afford to pay them. He was forced to represent himself, and was convicted after a very short trial. In prison, Gideon wrote out his appeal with a pencil on pad of paper. He claimed that he was constitutionally entitled to a lawyer.
When the appeals court decided to hear Gideon’s claim, Abe Fortas, one of the country’s leading attorneys and later a Supreme Court justice himself, argued the case, which went all the way to the nation’s highest court. In Gideon v. Wainwright, the Supreme Court ruled that a fair trial “cannot be realized if the poor man charged with [the] crime has to face his accusers without a lawyer to assist him.” [Case preview here.]
Gideon not only got his own conviction overturned, but he also established a principle that is at the heart of the criminal justice system today. Now part of what are known as our Miranda rights, -”You have the right to speak to an attorney. If you can’t afford one, one will be provided for you”-this information must be announced by every officer when making an arrest.
When Florida decided to retry Gideon for the poolroom burglary in 1963, he had an experienced lawyer at his trial. The attorney easily poked holes in the prosecution’s flimsy case and Gideon was acquitted. New York Times writer Anthony Lewis wrote the stirring account of how one poor man changed the entire system in his 1964 book, Gideon’s Trumpet, which later became a movie starring Henry Fonda.
