Clarence Earl Gideon
Encyclopedia
Clarence Earl Gideon was a poor drifter accused in a Florida
state court of felony theft. His case resulted in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision Gideon v. Wainwright
, holding that a criminal defendant who cannot afford to hire a lawyer
must be provided with a lawyer at no cost.
At Gideon's first trial, he represented himself, and he was convicted. After the Supreme Court ruled that the state had to provide defense counsel for the indigent, Florida retried Gideon. At his second trial, which took place in August of 1963 with a lawyer representing him and bringing out for the jury the weaknesses in the prosecution's case, Gideon was acquitted.
, Missouri
, on August 30, 1910, and his father (Charles Roscoe Gideon) died when he was three. His mother was Virginia Gregory Gideon. Gideon quit school after eighth grade and ran away from home, living as a homeless drifter. By the time he was sixteen, Gideon had begun compiling a petty crime profile.
Gideon spent a year in a reformatory for burglary before finding work at a shoe factory. At age 18, he was arrested in Missouri
and charged with robbery, burglary, and larceny. Gideon was sentenced to 10 years but released after three, in 1932, just as the Great Depression
was beginning.
Gideon spent most of the next three decades in poverty. He served some more prison terms at Leavenworth, Kansas
for stealing government property; in Missouri for stealing, larceny and escape; and in Texas
for theft.
Between his prison terms Gideon was married four times. The first one ended quickly, but the fourth to a woman named Ruth Ada Babineaux (in October, 1955) lasted. They settled in Orange, Texas
, in the mid-1950s, and Gideon found irregular work as a tugboat laborer and bartender until he was bedridden by tuberculosis
for 3 years.
In addition to three children that Ruth already had, Gideon and Ruth had three children, born in 1956, 1957 and 1959: the first two in Orange, the third after he had moved to Panama City, Florida
. The six children later were taken away by welfare authorities. Gideon started working as an electrician in Florida, but began gambling for money because of his low wages. Gideon did not serve any more time in jail until 1961.
Gideon was arrested in a tavern and, being too poor to pay for counsel, was forced to defend himself at his trial after being denied a lawyer by his trial judge, Robert McCrary, Jr.. On August 4, 1961, Gideon was tried and convicted of breaking and entering
with intent to commit petty larceny
, and on August 25, five days before his 51st birthday, Gideon was given the maximum sentence by Judge McCrary, which was five years in prison.
Gideon, then in jail, studied the American legal system and came to the conclusion that Judge McCrary had violated his constitutional right to counsel
under the Sixth Amendment
, applicable to the State of Florida through the due process
clause of the 14th Amendment
to the U.S. Constitution. He then wrote to an FBI office in Florida and next to the Florida Supreme Court
, but was denied help. Then in January 1962, he mailed a five-page petition to the Supreme Court of the United States
asking the nine justices to consider his complaint. The Supreme Court, in reply, agreed to hear his appeal. Originally, the case was called Gideon v. Cochran.
The Gideon v. Cochran case was argued on January 15, 1963. Abe Fortas
was assigned to represent Gideon. Bruce Jacob
, the Assistant Florida Attorney General, was assigned to argue against Gideon. Fortas argued that a common man with no training in law cannot go up against a trained lawyer and win, and that "you cannot have a fair trial without counsel." Jacob argued that the issue at hand was a state issue, not federal; the current practice of only appointing counsel under "special circumstances" in non-capital cases should stand; that thousands of convictions might have to be thrown out if it was changed; and that Florida has followed for 21 years "in good faith" the 1942 Supreme Court ruling in the Betts v. Brady
case. The hearing ended three hours and five minutes after it began. (The case's original title, Gideon v. Cochran, was changed to Gideon v. Wainwright
after Louie L. Wainwright
replaced H. G. Cochran
as the director of the Florida Division of Corrections, a fact made known to the Supreme Court clerk by Jacob). The Supreme Court ruled unanimously (9-0) in Gideon's favor in a landmark decision on March 18, 1963.
Gideon chose W. Fred Turner
to be his lawyer for his second trial. The retrial took place on August 5, 1963, five months after the Supreme Court ruling. Turner, during the trial, picked apart the testimony of eyewitness Henry Cook, and in his opening and closing statements suggested the idea that Cook likely had been a lookout for a group of young men who broke in to steal beer, then grabbed the coins while they were at it. Turner also got a statement from the cab driver who took Gideon from Bay Harbor, Florida to a bar in Panama City, Florida
, stating that Gideon was carrying neither wine, beer nor Coke when he picked him up, even though Cook testified that he watched Gideon walk from the pool hall to the phone, then wait for a cab. This testimony completely discredited Cook.
The jury acquitted Gideon after one hour of deliberation.
on January 18, 1972, at age 61. Gideon's family in Missouri accepted his body and buried him in an unmarked grave. A granite headstone was added later.
Robert F. Kennedy
remarked about the case, "If an obscure Florida convict named Clarence Earl Gideon had not sat down in prison with a pencil and paper to write a letter to the Supreme Court; and if the Supreme Court had not taken the trouble to look at the merits in that one crude petition among all the bundles of mail it must receive every day, the vast machinery of American law would have gone on functioning undisturbed. But Gideon did write that letter; the court did look into his case; he was re-tried with the help of competent defense counsel; found not guilty and released from prison after two years of punishment for a crime he did not commit. And the whole course of legal history has been changed."
in the 1980 made-for-television film Gideon's Trumpet, based on Anthony Lewis
' book. The film was first telecast as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame
anthology series, and co-starred Jose Ferrer
as Abe Fortas
, the attorney who pleaded Gideon's right to have a lawyer in the Supreme Court
. Fonda was nominated for an Emmy Award for his portrayal of Gideon.
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
state court of felony theft. His case resulted in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision Gideon v. Wainwright
Gideon v. Wainwright
Gideon v. Wainwright, , is a landmark case in United States Supreme Court history. In the case, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that state courts are required under the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution to provide counsel in criminal cases for defendants who are unable to afford their own...
, holding that a criminal defendant who cannot afford to hire a lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
must be provided with a lawyer at no cost.
At Gideon's first trial, he represented himself, and he was convicted. After the Supreme Court ruled that the state had to provide defense counsel for the indigent, Florida retried Gideon. At his second trial, which took place in August of 1963 with a lawyer representing him and bringing out for the jury the weaknesses in the prosecution's case, Gideon was acquitted.
Early life
Gideon was born in HannibalHannibal, Missouri
Hannibal is a city in Marion and Ralls counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. Hannibal is located at the intersection of Interstate 72 and U.S. Routes 24, 36 and 61, approximately northwest of St. Louis. According to the 2010 U.S. Census the population was 17,606...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, on August 30, 1910, and his father (Charles Roscoe Gideon) died when he was three. His mother was Virginia Gregory Gideon. Gideon quit school after eighth grade and ran away from home, living as a homeless drifter. By the time he was sixteen, Gideon had begun compiling a petty crime profile.
Gideon spent a year in a reformatory for burglary before finding work at a shoe factory. At age 18, he was arrested in Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
and charged with robbery, burglary, and larceny. Gideon was sentenced to 10 years but released after three, in 1932, just as the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
was beginning.
Gideon spent most of the next three decades in poverty. He served some more prison terms at Leavenworth, Kansas
Leavenworth, Kansas
Leavenworth is the largest city and county seat of Leavenworth County, in the U.S. state of Kansas and within the Kansas City, Missouri Metropolitan Area. Located in the northeast portion of the state, it is on the west bank of the Missouri River. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...
for stealing government property; in Missouri for stealing, larceny and escape; and in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
for theft.
Between his prison terms Gideon was married four times. The first one ended quickly, but the fourth to a woman named Ruth Ada Babineaux (in October, 1955) lasted. They settled in Orange, Texas
Orange, Texas
Orange is a city in Orange County, Texas, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 18,643. It is the county seat of Orange County, and is the easternmost city in Texas. Located on the Sabine River at the border with Louisiana, it is part of the Beaumont–Port Arthur...
, in the mid-1950s, and Gideon found irregular work as a tugboat laborer and bartender until he was bedridden by tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
for 3 years.
In addition to three children that Ruth already had, Gideon and Ruth had three children, born in 1956, 1957 and 1959: the first two in Orange, the third after he had moved to Panama City, Florida
Panama City, Florida
-Personal income:The median income for a household in the city was $31,572, and the median income for a family was $40,890. Males had a median income of $30,401 versus $21,431 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,830...
. The six children later were taken away by welfare authorities. Gideon started working as an electrician in Florida, but began gambling for money because of his low wages. Gideon did not serve any more time in jail until 1961.
Conviction and Gideon v. Wainwright
On June 3, 1961, $5 in change and a few bottles of beer and soda were stolen from Bay Harbor Pool Room, a pool hall/beer joint that belonged to Ira Strickland, Jr. Strickland also alleged that $50 was taken from the jukebox. Henry Cook, a 22-year-old resident who lived nearby, told the police that he had seen Gideon walk out of the joint with a bottle of wine and his pockets filled with coins, and then get into a cab and leave.Gideon was arrested in a tavern and, being too poor to pay for counsel, was forced to defend himself at his trial after being denied a lawyer by his trial judge, Robert McCrary, Jr.. On August 4, 1961, Gideon was tried and convicted of breaking and entering
Burglary
Burglary is a crime, the essence of which is illicit entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offense. Usually that offense will be theft, but most jurisdictions specify others which fall within the ambit of burglary...
with intent to commit petty larceny
Larceny
Larceny is a crime involving the wrongful acquisition of the personal property of another person. It was an offence under the common law of England and became an offence in jurisdictions which incorporated the common law of England into their own law. It has been abolished in England and Wales,...
, and on August 25, five days before his 51st birthday, Gideon was given the maximum sentence by Judge McCrary, which was five years in prison.
Gideon, then in jail, studied the American legal system and came to the conclusion that Judge McCrary had violated his constitutional right to counsel
Right to counsel
Right to counsel is currently generally regarded as a constituent of the right to a fair trial, allowing for the defendant to be assisted by counsel , and if he cannot afford his own lawyer, requiring that the government should appoint one for him/her, or pay his/her legal expenses...
under the Sixth Amendment
Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights which sets forth rights related to criminal prosecutions...
, applicable to the State of Florida through the due process
Due process
Due process is the legal code that the state must venerate all of the legal rights that are owed to a person under the principle. Due process balances the power of the state law of the land and thus protects individual persons from it...
clause of the 14th Amendment
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the Dred Scott v...
to the U.S. Constitution. He then wrote to an FBI office in Florida and next to the Florida Supreme Court
Florida Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of Florida is the highest court in the U.S. state of Florida. The Supreme Court consists of seven judges: the Chief Justice and six Justices who are appointed by the Governor to 6-year terms and remain in office if retained in a general election near the end of each...
, but was denied help. Then in January 1962, he mailed a five-page petition to the Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
asking the nine justices to consider his complaint. The Supreme Court, in reply, agreed to hear his appeal. Originally, the case was called Gideon v. Cochran.
The Gideon v. Cochran case was argued on January 15, 1963. Abe Fortas
Abe Fortas
Abraham Fortas was a U.S. Supreme Court associate justice from 1965 to 1969. Originally from Tennessee, Fortas became a law professor at Yale, and subsequently advised the Securities and Exchange Commission. He then worked at the Interior Department under Franklin D...
was assigned to represent Gideon. Bruce Jacob
Bruce Jacob
Bruce R. Jacob was Assistant Attorney General for the State of Florida during the early 1960s, whose biggest case was Gideon v. Wainwright, arguing against Gideon....
, the Assistant Florida Attorney General, was assigned to argue against Gideon. Fortas argued that a common man with no training in law cannot go up against a trained lawyer and win, and that "you cannot have a fair trial without counsel." Jacob argued that the issue at hand was a state issue, not federal; the current practice of only appointing counsel under "special circumstances" in non-capital cases should stand; that thousands of convictions might have to be thrown out if it was changed; and that Florida has followed for 21 years "in good faith" the 1942 Supreme Court ruling in the Betts v. Brady
Betts v. Brady
Betts v. Brady, 316 U.S. 455 , was a landmark United States Supreme Court case that denied counsel to indigent defendants when prosecuted by a state. It was famously overruled by Gideon v. Wainwright.- Background :...
case. The hearing ended three hours and five minutes after it began. (The case's original title, Gideon v. Cochran, was changed to Gideon v. Wainwright
Gideon v. Wainwright
Gideon v. Wainwright, , is a landmark case in United States Supreme Court history. In the case, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that state courts are required under the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution to provide counsel in criminal cases for defendants who are unable to afford their own...
after Louie L. Wainwright
Louie L. Wainwright
Louie L. Wainwright was Secretary of the Florida Division of Corrections from 1962 to 1987, more than a quarter of a century. He is most famous for being the named respondent in two U.S. Supreme Court cases: Gideon v. Wainwright in which indigents are guaranteed an attorney, and Ford v...
replaced H. G. Cochran
H. G. Cochran
H.G. Cochran Florida Director of the Division of Corrections from 1959 to 1962. He replaced R.O. Culver and was replaced by Louie L...
as the director of the Florida Division of Corrections, a fact made known to the Supreme Court clerk by Jacob). The Supreme Court ruled unanimously (9-0) in Gideon's favor in a landmark decision on March 18, 1963.
Second trial
About 2,000 unjustly convicted people in Florida alone were freed as a result of the Gideon decision; Gideon himself was not freed. He instead got another trial.Gideon chose W. Fred Turner
W. Fred Turner
W. Fred Turner was an American attorney. He was the lawyer who successfully defended Clarence Earl Gideon in the second trial that was given to him after the Gideon vs. Wainwright case overturned his conviction. The story behind this famous case was told in Anthony Lewis's 1964 book Gideon's...
to be his lawyer for his second trial. The retrial took place on August 5, 1963, five months after the Supreme Court ruling. Turner, during the trial, picked apart the testimony of eyewitness Henry Cook, and in his opening and closing statements suggested the idea that Cook likely had been a lookout for a group of young men who broke in to steal beer, then grabbed the coins while they were at it. Turner also got a statement from the cab driver who took Gideon from Bay Harbor, Florida to a bar in Panama City, Florida
Panama City, Florida
-Personal income:The median income for a household in the city was $31,572, and the median income for a family was $40,890. Males had a median income of $30,401 versus $21,431 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,830...
, stating that Gideon was carrying neither wine, beer nor Coke when he picked him up, even though Cook testified that he watched Gideon walk from the pool hall to the phone, then wait for a cab. This testimony completely discredited Cook.
The jury acquitted Gideon after one hour of deliberation.
Later life and legacy
After his acquittal, he resumed his previous way of life and married again some time later. He died of cancer in Fort LauderdaleFort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, on the Atlantic coast. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 165,521. It is a principal city of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010...
on January 18, 1972, at age 61. Gideon's family in Missouri accepted his body and buried him in an unmarked grave. A granite headstone was added later.
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...
remarked about the case, "If an obscure Florida convict named Clarence Earl Gideon had not sat down in prison with a pencil and paper to write a letter to the Supreme Court; and if the Supreme Court had not taken the trouble to look at the merits in that one crude petition among all the bundles of mail it must receive every day, the vast machinery of American law would have gone on functioning undisturbed. But Gideon did write that letter; the court did look into his case; he was re-tried with the help of competent defense counsel; found not guilty and released from prison after two years of punishment for a crime he did not commit. And the whole course of legal history has been changed."
Portrayal on film
Clarence Earl Gideon was portrayed by Henry FondaHenry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
in the 1980 made-for-television film Gideon's Trumpet, based on Anthony Lewis
Anthony Lewis
Anthony Lewis is a prominent liberal intellectual, writing for The New York Times op-ed page and The New York Review of Books, among other publications. He was previously a columnist for the Times . Before that he was London bureau chief , Washington, D.C...
' book. The film was first telecast as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The second longest-running television program in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2011...
anthology series, and co-starred Jose Ferrer
José Ferrer
José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón , best known as José Ferrer, was a Puerto Rican actor, as well as a theater and film director...
as Abe Fortas
Abe Fortas
Abraham Fortas was a U.S. Supreme Court associate justice from 1965 to 1969. Originally from Tennessee, Fortas became a law professor at Yale, and subsequently advised the Securities and Exchange Commission. He then worked at the Interior Department under Franklin D...
, the attorney who pleaded Gideon's right to have a lawyer in the Supreme Court
Supreme court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of many legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, instance court, judgment court, high court, or apex court...
. Fonda was nominated for an Emmy Award for his portrayal of Gideon.