An indigent man is not entitled to counsel unless he commits a capital offense. This is what the movie Gideon’s Trumpet imposes during Clarence Earl Gideon’s trial for petty larceny. The flaw in the Justice system caused an indigent man to fight for what he believed in, a fair trial. His fight changed the United States Justice System and the lives of many who were deprived of legal counsel during past and present trials.
On the early morning of June 13th, 1961 in Panama City, Florida an individual broke into the Bay Harbor Pool Hall. The only evidence was a broken window, a broken cigarette machine, a broken juke box, and one eye witness. The eye witness claimed he saw a man by the name of Clarence Earl Gideon exiting the pool hall with a pint
…show more content…
He requested that the court appoint him counsel in which he was denied due to the state of Florida only appointing counsel to indigent individuals being charged with capital offenses or individuals who were illiterate. With no knowledge or experience in criminal law, Clarence Gideon was forced to defend himself against the court’s prosecutor.
In front of a jury of six men, Clarence Gideon represented himself the best he could, unfortunately he did not succeed in proving his innocence and was found guilty. In the eyes of the prosecutor, judge and jury Clarence Earl Gideon was a criminal before he even had a chance to defend himself. Gideon was charged with breaking and entering and petty larceny and convicted to serve five years in prison for stealing four pints of wine, twelve bottles of Coca-Cola, twelve cans of beer, and eleven dollars worth of change from the vending machines, a large price to pay for a minor
…show more content…
Clarence Earl Gideon then filed a motion not to be retried on the basis that it was against his Fifth Amendment right to be retried for the same offense twice since it was double jeopardy. His motion was overruled due to a prisoner can be retried for the same offense twice when he or she was the one that petitioned for the retrial. Two years after his conviction, Clarence Earl Gideon was going to stand trial in Panama City, Florida for a second time; this time he had a competent lawyer appointed by the court.
On August 3rd 1963 the retrial of Clarence Earl Gideon commenced, the same evidence and witnesses were brought in from the previous trial. Gideon was against being retried in the same courthouse under the same judge and jury, but his worries were brought to an ease by his lawyer. His lawyer argued that the credibility of the eye witness was inadmissible in court due to the holes in his story, lack evidence and alibis. In his closing argument he stated that the real criminal was the eye witness Lester Wade, and that Clarence Earl Gideon was an innocent of all
Pagan writes a captivating story mingled with the challenges of the Eastern Shore legal system. This book gives a complete explanation backed up by research and similar cases as evidence of the ever-changing legal system. It should be a required reading for a history or law student.
One July afternoon in 1931 on a cloudy and cool afternoon a police officer walks in the local areas detective office. The officer sets a dirty folder with a big brown splotch on it, which seems to be a coffee stain. Inside the stained folder contains 2 printed pages of check copies. The detective puts on a bewildered face and wonders what he is supposed to accomplish with the unsolvable papers. Little does the detective know he has a long road ahead of him on discovering the unsolved mystery of Lawrence Exeter Jr.
Although this case was very influential on the way police forces carry out their duties, I think the case was mostly important in that it forced all courts in the U.S. to have a greater recognition of the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution and the story of the victim involved in this case. Clarence Earl Gideon was born on August 30, 1910 in the state of Hannibal, Missouri. His father’s name was Charles Gideon and his mother’s was Virginia Gideon. In 1913, Charles Gideon died just a few days after the third birthday of Clarence. Virginia remarried Marion Frances Anderson when he was five.
The case of Ford V. Wainwright is a Supreme court case of the United Stated argued in 1986. Alvin Bernard Ford is the plaintiff in this case, In 1974 he was convicted of murder in Florida and sentenced to death. In 1982 Ford began to show signs of a serious mental disorder. The Governor of Florida then appointed a panel of three psychiatrist to determine if Ford was component to understand the nature of the death penalty and the crime he had committed. All three psychiatrist disagreed on his exact diagnosis but agreed that he was sane and knew the nature of the death penalty. Ford’s attorney unsuccessfully sought a hearing in the state court for determination of his competency and then filed a hebeas corpus petition, which is a writ requiring a person to be brought before a judge or court especially for investigation of a restraint of the person’s liberty. The Florida courts denied his petition and signed a death warrant for Ford in 1984. Ford then sued Louie L. Wainwright, the defendant, who at the time of the case was the Secretary of the Florida Division of Correction.
Throughout the trial, defense attorneys attempted to argue Salvi was suffering from psychological disorders that would make him incompetent for trial. Ultimately, however Salvi was found competent to stand trial. After reading Salvi’s full psychiatric interview, the official court transcript of the four-day competency hearing, and the day-to-day summary; I have come to agree that the defendant, John Salvi was competent to stand trial.
In Gideon's Trumpet Anthony Lewis documents Clarence Earl Gideon's struggle for a lawyer, during an era where it was not necessary in the due process to appoint an attorney to those convicted.
At his trial Gideon could not afford a lawyer, so he asked the judge to appoint him one, Gideon argued that the Court should appoint him one because the Sixth Amendment says that everyone is entitled to a lawyer. The judge turned down his request, saying that the state did not have to pay a poor person's legal defense unless he was charged with a capital crime or that "special circumstances" existed. Gideon was left to represent himself in court.
R. v. Lavallee was a case held in 1990 that sent waves through the legal community. The defendant, Lyn Lavallee was in a relationship with her partner, Kevin Rust, in which he would abuse her both mentally and physically. On the night of the incident, Lyn and her husband got into a fight, her husband pulled out a gun and told her if she didn’t kill him now he’d be coming for her later. When leaving the room, Lyn shot Kevin in the back of the head killing him instantly. She was convicted of murder, but when brought before the Manitoba Court, she was acquitted of the charges. An appeal was made to the Manitoba court of Appeal on the grounds that expert testimony should not be admitted as evidence in the courts. They argued that the jury was perfectly
Clarence Earl Gideon was arrested in 1961 and charged with breaking and entering a pool hall with intent to commit theft, by taking money out of vending machines. What he did at the time was considered a felony. When it came time to have the trial he did not have enough money for a lawyer and asked that one be appointed to defend him. The judge denied the request saying that under Florida state law counsel can be appointed only in a capital offense. Since Gideon didn’t have a lawyer and was not educated to defend himself he lost easily to the prosecution. Gideon was then sentenced to five years in prison. He then filed out a writ of certiorari, which is a petition of appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States asking for them to review his case. The Court granted Gideon's request and appointed Abe Fortas to represent him as his lawyer.
When working with a court appointed lawyer you need to research and follow up on guidelines that carry with your charge. You have to learn how the court system works. Lawyers that are hired by the court to represent the low and middle-income people are lazy in doing their job. There are many reasons why court appointed lawyers don't do their best for their clients involving the court cases.
As Darrow and Ruby returned to the U.S., they were greeted with the news of the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh, Jr. This would have been a case a few years before would have been offered to Clarence Darrow. But it wasn’t; his time had passed.
The court system includes the judges, jury, prosecutors and defense attorneys. The Attorneys convince the suspects to take plea bargains, the judges are sometimes unfair in the decisions they make, and the prosecutors overlook exculpatory evidence. Picking cotton shows in detail some common errors of the court system. During Ronald Cotton 's first trial, His Attorney, Phil Moseley, tried to bring a memory expert to testify on the unreliability of memory but the judge denied his request. After Ronald 's case was overturned by the supreme court, he got a new trial in another court which had even more problems and bias. First, there was racial prejudice during the jury selection. “Four black people from the community got called in for jury duty. The judge himself dismissed one of them and then Mr turner made sure none of the rest sat on my jury” Ronald cotton stated. Because he was black, the four jurors were dismissed and he was left with an all white jury and two white Alternates. Second, the judge “Held something called a “voir dire” hearing, which Phil explained meant he would have to put up all the evidence about Poole in front of the Judge, but not the Jury”(129). Also, Ronald Cotton 's defense attorney explained to the judge the parallelism between Bobby Poole 's case and the rape Ronald Cotton was charged with. Despite the weak physical evidence against Ronald Cotton, the
Often, they struggled with the fact that although there were laws in place, these laws rarely applied to slaves. With this constant questioning, Judge William Hall decided to take this trial as an opportunity to address the conflict, disputing any claims of an unfair trial by providing Celia with a talented attorney named John Jameson. Jameson was thought to be able to give a “presence [that] would make it difficult for slavery’s critics to label the trial a farce or sham.”(82) It can be noted that although Celia had the right to a trial, she was not guaranteed a fair trial. One of the blatant disregards to a fair trial was that Celia was not allowed to testify in her own defense. “For under Missouri law, as was the case in many southern states, a slave could not testify against a white person, even one deceased” (108) as noted by McLaurin. This law often resulted in slaves receiving a bias trial in favor of those bringing charges against them. Unlike most attorney’s, Jameson fought valiantly for Celia , arguing that in this situation, Celia had a right to protect herself(103). If an altercation escalated far enough, slaves in “slaveholding states…[had] the right to use force to repel physical attacks that threatened his or her life” (102).This right not only allowed slaves to defend themselves physically but legally as well. With these basic
This morning October 8th 1965 at about 5:13 am the body of Bob Sheldon was found lying next to the park fountain he was seen to be in a pool of blood. His body had a single stab wound in his back which had pierced his heart, killing him instantly. Supposed eye witnesses say that a small boy who was a member of the "Greaser Gang" attacked and killed Bob and intended to kill the rest of them. Cherry Valance claims that she was walking with Johnny and Ponyboy after the movies when Bob approached them in his car and threatened the two them. Be on the lookout for the two boys with the description of one that has long light-brown hair, green eyes, and is about five feet tall and another has long jet-black hair, large black eyes, and is about four feet six inches. The first one is considered to be Ponyboy and the second one is considered to be Johnny. The two are now on the run they were last seen at a party with Dally. Investigators report that Dally says he has no idea where these two are but he thinks that they are going to Mexico. A woman was taking a walk through the park and discovered the bloody corpse she said “I was hesitant at first because I thought they were watching me, but I gained some courage and called 911” the friends that were their helping Bob bully the 2 said they were there during the homicide, but decided not to call the police because they were drunk and they were scared after seeing him dead. They said, the murderer was a 16 year old boy named Johnny Cade.
... believed in the innocence of the young man and convinced the others to view the evidence and examine the true events that occurred. He struggled with the other jurors because he became the deviant one in the group, not willing to follow along with the rest. His reasoning and his need to examine things prevailed because one by one, the jurors started to see his perspective and they voted not guilty. Some jurors were not convinced, no matter how much evidence was there, especially Juror #3. His issues with his son affected his decision-making but in the end, he only examined the evidence and concluded that the young man was not guilty.