Clarence Earl Gideon is a simple 8th grade education type of man, who lives in a hotel across the street of a pool bar place in the state of Florida. One day after getting a taxi to go to a bar, Mr. Gideon was falsely accused of breaking into the pool bar and stealing some money. The police picked Clarence up and brought him to court. The day of the court trial, Mr. Gideon had brought up the Constitutional issue of Amendment 6, which is to give the defendant an attorney.
On the other hand, the judge had clarified that, this was how it was during that time period, the
“state refusing to give the defendant an attorney did not necessarily violate the ‘Due Process
Clause of the 14th Amendment’” (Facts and Summary of Cases: Gideon v. Wainwright).
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As soon as Clarence was imprisoned, he tried his best and most effort to learn the laws to prove how unfair his trial was. Eventually
Clarence's effort had lead up to the Supreme Court hearing this unfairness of a trial. Therefore,
Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) is the most important and influential Supreme Court case in recent history because of how big of a beneficial change a simple, not very educated man had made on the points of view in all the courts.
At first when Mr. Gideon had defended himself, he brought up the subject of how he had not received an attorney. Apparently to the judge , Mr. Gideon had all the knowledge of an attorney and capability of defending himself. Also, that attorneys are only appointed to capital crime accused defendants, Clarence's crime was a misdemeanor. At the end of that trial, Mr.
Gideon was found guilty. (Facts and Summary of the Cases: Gideon v. Wainwright).
The Supreme court trial contained the key players, that were trying to get their point across, of Mr. Clarence Earl Gideon and Louie L. Wainwright. Mr. Gideon's attorney had restated the 6th amendments ability of how a fair, speedy, public trial should be given to
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For example, if the defendant cannot read, etc. (Landmark Cases: Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)).
As soon as Mr. Gideon had got into jail, he tried to prove his innocence/rights within the first year. Clarence had written a letter to the courts to get them to see his side of the story (to see how unfair his trial was without a lawyer). Obviously, his case went to the Supreme Court after studying the laws in jail. After the retrial, the outcome of the court is that the state is required to appoint an attorney to the defendant, if the defendant cannot pay for one themselves and they ask for one. Also, the state has to appoint attorney if the no matter the type of crime the defendant is being charged with. (Gideon v. Wainwright).
Finally, Gideon v. Wainwright case gave the relevance of today's society by giving everyone the right to an attorney, no matter what type of crime it is. Also, Mr. Clarence Gideon had given everyone, especially me, the influence of standing up and correcting the law. In other words, Mr. Gideon has made a great example of showing that no matter what your abilities are, you can still correct the wrong, he did this by correcting the court's rules with only his 8th