Reflection On The Right To Counsel Under The Sixth Amendment

1. Describe your overall impression of the movie and its relevance to a topic or topics we covered and discussed in class. After watching this movie, I think the right to counsel under the Sixth Amendment of Constitution is as basic as any right listed in the American Constitution, because the threat of imprisonment or even execution is greater than any other threats. Without this fundament right, most of criminal defendants will not have a fair trial and equal protection of the laws, which further violates the defendant’s constitutional right that is protected by the Fourteenth Amendment, just like Gideon. He was charged of breaking and entering a Florida pool hall and stealing money and some beer and coke. Gideon requested the state of Florida to appoint a counsel to defend him, but the judge denied his request because it was not a capital case meaning crimes may be warranted the death penalty. Thus Gideon was forced to defend himself against the prosecutor who was a well trained lawyer. An old man who quit school after the eighth grade versus a lawyer, Gideon was found guilty unsurprisingly, and he was

He asserted that Gideon should had been entitled to having a defense lawyer regardless of special circumstances, because no man can have a fair trial without a lawyer. In order to have an equal protection of the laws, the requirement of the right to counsel under the Sixth Amendment should be imposed to every state. To be more specific, either the state court or the federal court should provide a defendant with a lawyer at least from the defendant’s the first arraignment through the trial and appeal. This right should be applicable to all criminal offenses but misdemeanors, thereby the right to counsel was guaranteed for both the poor and the rich. Basically, Abe Fortas indicated that this right was supposed to be a fundamental