Editing Gideon v. Wainwright (section)

==Background==
Between midnight and 8:00&nbsp;a.m. on June 3, 1961, a burglary occurred at the Bay Harbor Pool Room in [[Panama City, Florida|Panama City]], [[Florida]]. An unknown person broke a door, smashed a cigarette machine and a record player, and stole money from a cash register. Later that day, a witness reported that he had seen [[Clarence Earl Gideon]] in the poolroom at around 5:30 that morning, leaving with a wine bottle, a [[Coca-Cola]], and some change in his pockets. Based on this accusation alone, the police arrested Gideon and charged him with breaking and entering with intent to commit petty [[larceny]].   

Gideon appeared in court alone, as he was too poor to afford to hire a defense lawyer. The following conversation took place between Gideon and the judge:<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/372/335|title=Gideon v. Wainwright|website=LII / Legal Information Institute}}</ref>

{{quote|'''The COURT:''' Mr. Gideon, I am sorry, but I cannot appoint counsel to represent you in this case. Under the laws of the State of Florida, the only time the court can appoint counsel to represent a defendant is when that person is charged with a capital offense. I am sorry, but I will have to deny your request to appoint counsel to defend you in this case.

'''GIDEON:''' The United States Supreme Court says I am entitled to be represented by counsel.
}}

The [[Circuit court (Florida)|trial court]] declined to appoint counsel for Gideon. As a result, he was forced to act as his own counsel and conduct his own defense in court, emphasizing his innocence in the case. At the conclusion of the trial, the jury returned a guilty verdict. The court sentenced Gideon to serve five years in the state prison.

Gideon first filed a petition for a writ of ''[[habeas corpus]]'' in the [[Supreme Court of Florida]]. In his petition, he claimed his Sixth Amendment right had been violated because the judge refused to appoint counsel. The Florida Supreme Court denied Gideon's petition.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.uscourts.gov/educational-resources/educational-activities/facts-and-case-summary-gideon-v-wainwright|title=Facts and Case Summary - Gideon v. Wainwright|website=United States Courts|accessdate=November 18, 2022}}</ref> Later, from his cell at the [[Florida State Prison]] in [[Raiford, Florida|Raiford]], making use of the prison library and writing in pencil on prison stationery,<ref>{{cite book|title=Petition for a Writ of Certiorari from Clarence Gideon to the Supreme Court of the United States, 01/05/1962|url=https://research.archives.gov/description/597554|publisher=The National Archives|access-date=November 9, 2014|year=1962|series=File Unit: Appellate Jurisdiction Case File Gideon v. Wainright, August 1, 1962 - December 4, 1963|archive-date=November 9, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141109040753/http://research.archives.gov/description/597554|url-status=dead}}</ref> Gideon appealed to the United States Supreme Court in a suit against the Secretary of the [[Florida Department of Corrections]], H. G. Cochran. Cochran retired and was replaced by [[Louie L. Wainwright]] before the Supreme Court heard the case. Gideon argued in his appeal that he had been denied counsel and therefore that his Sixth Amendment rights, as applied to the states by the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]], had been violated.

The Supreme Court assigned Gideon a prominent [[Washington, D.C.]] attorney, future Supreme Court justice [[Abe Fortas]] of the law firm [[Arnold & Porter|Arnold, Fortas & Porter]]. Fortas was assisted by longtime Arnold, Fortas & Porter partner Abe Krash and future famed legal scholar [[John Hart Ely]], then a third-year student at [[Yale Law School]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Krash|first=Abe|title=Architects of Gideon: Remembering Abe Fortas and Hugo Black|url=http://www.nacdl.org/Champion/Articles/98mar02.htm|work=The Champion|publisher=NACDL|access-date=October 24, 2013|date=March 1998|archive-date=April 7, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160407221600/http://www.nacdl.org/CHAMPION/ARTICLES/98mar02.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Bruce Jacob]], who later became Dean of the [[Mercer University School of Law]] and Dean of [[Stetson University College of Law]], argued the case for Florida.<ref name="WDL"/>

During oral arguments before the Supreme Court, Fortas repeatedly asserted that the existing framework for a state trial court to appoint counsel was unworkable.<ref name="oyez.org">"Gideon v. Wainwright." Oyez, December 6, 2018, [https://www.oyez.org/cases/1962/155 www.oyez.org/cases/1962/155].</ref> Under the existing framework, a magistrate in a [[preliminary hearing]] determined whether there were "special circumstances" in the case meriting that the defendant receive counsel. But as Fortas highlighted, that determination occurred too early in the case to be of any use. For example, whether a witness's statement should be barred because it was [[hearsay]] is an extremely complicated issue that no layman could readily confront, and such a situation arises only during a trial.

As a second point, Fortas presented during oral argument that it was widely accepted in the legal community that the first thing any reputable lawyer does when accused of a crime is hire an attorney. As an example, Fortas noted that when [[Clarence Darrow]], who was widely known as the greatest criminal attorney in the United States, was charged with [[jury tampering]] and suborning perjury, the first thing he did was get an attorney to represent him.<ref name="oyez.org"/> Since Gideon had only an eighth-grade education, Fortas suggested that if a lawyer as prominent as Darrow needed an attorney to represent him in criminal proceedings, then a man without a legal education, or any education for that matter, needed a lawyer too.<ref name="oyez.org"/> Fortas's former Yale Law School professor, longtime friend and future Supreme Court colleague Justice [[William O. Douglas]] praised his argument as "probably the best single legal argument" in his 36 years on the court.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://memphismagazine.com/features/columns/abe-fortas-supreme-court-memphis/|title=Celebrating "Fiddlin' Abe" Fortas|date=July 18, 2017}}</ref>