Gideon v. Wainwright

Gideon v. Wainwright
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued January 15, 1963 Decided March 18, 1963
Full case name	Clarence E. Gideon v. Louie L. Wainwright, Corrections Director.
Citations	372 U.S. 335 (more)
Argument	Oral argument
Prior history	Gideon convicted, Bay County, Florida Circuit Court (1961); habeas request denied, Gideon v. Cochrane, 135 So. 2d 746 (Fla. 1961)
Subsequent history	At 2nd trial, Gideon found not guilty, 153 So. 2d 299 (Fla. 1963)
Holding
States must assign free lawyers to poor defendants. The states must follow the Sixth Amendment's right to counsel rule because the Fourteenth Amendment requires due process.
Court membership
Chief Justice Earl Warren Associate Justices Hugo Black · William O. Douglas Tom C. Clark · John M. Harlan II William J. Brennan, Jr. · Potter Stewart Byron White · Arthur Goldberg
Case opinions
Majority	Black, joined by Warren, Brennan, Stewart, White, Goldberg
Concurrence	Clark
Concurrence	Harlan
Concurrence	Douglas
Laws applied
Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments
This case overturned a previous ruling or rulings
Betts v. Brady (1942)

Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963), is a landmark case in United States Supreme Court history. The Court decided that if a person is charged with a crime, and they cannot pay for a lawyer, the state has to give them one for free. This case caused the public defender program to be created in the United States. (A public defender is a lawyer who defends clients who cannot pay them.)