Winston Vazquez III: 6th Amendment Clarence Earl Gideon was a drifter who was very poor and had only an eighth-grade education. On the third day of June 1961, Gideon was charged and then arrested for stealing fifty dollars and a couple of drinks from the Pool House, which was a pool hall/bar. When Gideon was tried in court, he made a request for a lawyer because he did not have enough money to afford one. When Gideon requested a lawyer, he was denied by judge Henry Grady Cochran, who retired during the case and was replaced by Louie Lee Wainwright. Gideon claimed that the Supreme Court of the United States entitled him to be represented by counsel. Gideon was then denied a lawyer because the state law of Florida states that the court will only give an …show more content…
Because Gideon was not given a lawyer, he had no choice but to represent himself in his trial. Gideon, having no education in law, was unable to prove himself innocent and was found guilty of breaking and entering with plans to commit a misdemeanor. He was sentenced to five years in state prison, which gave him a lot of time to think and learn more about the constitution. While he was in prison, he did some studying and found that the sixth amendment of the constitution gave him the right to have effective assistance of counsel for his defense, which meant that the court had to give him an attorney because he could not provide one for himself. Another thing that Gideon did while in prison was that he filed a petition for habeas corpus claiming that the courts refusal to appoint effective assistance denied the rights given to him by the Bill of Rights. The