Summary Of Gideon's Trumpet By Anthony Lewis

Anastasia Walker

Professor Ifedi

Introduction to Political Science

October 29, 2014

Book Report: Gideon’s Trumpet by Anthony Lewis The book Gideon’s Trumpet was written by Anthony Lewis, who was for many years a prominent reporter and columnist for the New York Times. Lewis tells the story of Clarence Earl Gideon, the plaintiff in the landmark Gideon v. Wainwright decision by the United States Supreme Court. The case was decided in 1963 and established that criminal defendants in the United States have the constitutional right to be represented in court by counsel even if they are unable to personally afford to pay an attorney. Gideon v. Wainwright provided the legal foundation for the requirement that indigent defendants be granted a court-appointed

Gideon was arrested and charged with a crime on the basis of hearsay testimony from an alleged witness. When Gideon went to court for trial, he requested that he be granted counsel. The trial judge denied his request citing lack of legal authorization under Florida state law. Gideon subsequently represented himself at his trial, and was convicted by a jury. He was sentenced to five years in prison. While in prison, he wrote to the U.S. Supreme Court complaining that his constitutional rights had been violated. The Supreme Court agreed to hear his case, and appointed future Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas as his representative. The Court subsequently ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law requires that indigent defendants be provided with counsel, and this ruling became the basis for the right to counsel that exists

At the second trial, Gideon was represented by the attorney W. Fred Turner who won him an acquittal. An immediate consequence of the Supreme Court ruling was that over two thousand Florida prison inmates were released on the grounds that they did not receive a fair trial because their constitutional right to counsel had been denied. Gideon v. Wainwright was one of a number of important Supreme Court rulings that were handed down during the 1960s that provided greater protections to persons accused of a