Summary: Gideon V. Wainwright

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Have you ever struggled with financial problems? What if you get put into court and are denied an attorney even though you have the same right to one as everyone else? Well, that is what Clarence Earl Gideon experienced and had to argue for on Jan 15, 1963. On June of 1961, a burglary occurred at the Bay Harbor Pool Room in Panama City, Florida. When Gideon known for being arrested many times was found near the scene the police arrested him and charged him with breaking and entering. Gideon could not afford a lawyer so upon appearance at the Florida Court for trial he asked the judge to appoint one for him. The judge denied his request claiming that they didn’t need to give a less wealthy person a lawyer. Gideon told the court that they had …show more content…
From his prison cell, he wrote a petition asking the Supreme Court to hear his case. The Court allowed him to file it in forma pauperis and then agreed to hear his case. Resulting it to be a landmark case since once a case reaches the Supreme Court, it not only affects the participant but other people in the future as well since it creates a precedence and becomes jurisprudence. When the state court restrained Gideon from a counsel to defend himself, his rights were violated and the Supreme Court would not want the same mistake repeated once more. The Supreme Court protected the individual right to a counsel in the Gideon v. Wainwright case by using the Sixth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment. Some people think that the U.S Supreme Court should have sided with Wainwright because the case was presented to a state-wide court which has different rules than a federal court. But, the Supreme Court sided with Gideon because it violated his fundamental rights as an individual and no type of authority should have taken his rights …show more content…
Wainwright under the Fourteenth and Sixth Amendment of the Bill of Rights. In the very beginning, the Florida state should’ve granted Gideon a lawyer rather he was financially well or not. Florida state clearly violated the protection of Gideon's rights and the Supreme Court had to fix the mistake. Whether you are in a state court or federal court, your rights as a citizen no matter what the circumstances may be, should be respected and guaranteed. The purpose of the Bill of Rights is for us not to be powerless or treated unfairly… hence this case illustrates a situation which defeats the spirit of the law as our Founding Fathers created it. With Gideon on trial with no information nor skill against a lawyer who has a degree in law made the scale very unbalanced and put the state court in a massive advantage. Hence, basically the fact the Supreme Court sided with Gideon reestablished a balance by safeguarding his rights as an individual to obtain a lawyer against in the legally and socially unfair restriction of the state court to deny him one. This became a landmark case because it impacts the outcome of a lot of court cases where the defendant has no lawyer. This is a case that represents how the court shouldn’t deny an accused from a lawyer because when put up to defend his case he is nearly destined to be found guilty. This case still significantly impacts
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