Gideon’s Day 60th Anniversary Celebration is March 18, 2023

School, TV, and movies have taught us about the Police reading you your rights. We hear them being quoted all the time when someone gets arrested. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney before and during any questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you.” While the right to remain silent is guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, the right to an attorney on all criminal cases came about because of Clarence Earl Gideon.

The State of Florida charged Mr. Gideon with a felony offense. When he went to trial, he requested the court to appoint him an attorney. At that time, Florida only gave indigent defendants an appointed attorney if they were facing a capital case. Mr. Gideon had to represent himself and was found guilty during his trial. He filed a writ of habeas corpus which wound up in front of the Supreme Court of the United States. On March 18, 1963, Justice Hugo Black issued the decision in Gideon v. Wainwright making sure citizens didn’t have to stand alone against the State when facing a criminal charge.

Our Founding Fathers knew how important it was to protect citizens from the weight and power of the government. Having defeated King George’s tyranny and establishing the United States of America, the framers of the Constitution wanted to ensure government overreach never happened again. They wrote the 6th Amendment of the Constitution to address just that limitation. “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.” The 6th Amendment had applied to federal crimes and had gradually been expanded to cover certain State crimes, but Mr. Gideon’s case gave us the rights we enjoy today.

In the Supreme Court’s opinion, the Court held the 6th Amendment’s guarantee of counsel is a fundamental right. A citizen cannot have a fair trial without an attorney, and for people too poor to hire one, it is an almost insurmountable task. Mr. Gideon was an indigent defendant who could not afford an attorney. In his case, the Supreme Court decided it was a violation of the Constitution and went against the notion of a fair trial for Florida not to give him a lawyer when he asked. The process of criminal law changed with Justice Black’s ruling.

Potter & Armstrong County Assistant Public Defender Lakeshia Walton, who will be speaking about rural public defense at the Gideon’s Day celebration in Austin, had this to say about the occasion: “As the 60th anniversary for the Gideon v. Wainright decision approaches, March 18th also brings National Public Defense Day. Sixty years ago, the Supreme Court made it clear that even those that cannot afford zealous, legal representation are still entitled to it. That decision sparked the creation of public defense offices around the nation. And with those offices came attorneys willing to sacrifice the benefits of private practice to devote themselves to public service. As I find myself trying to fill the large shoes of the devoted public defenders that came before me, I am thankful for the example that they set. Their example set the groundwork necessary for us to face and remedy the challenges in the criminal justice system that we face today. In my personal celebration of this day, I can only hope that we set the same standard for those to come in the next 60 years.”

Todd Henderson is an Amarillo attorney and Vice-President of the Panhandle Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. Mr. Henderson stated, “From a prison cell in Florida, Clarence Gideon, an 8th grade dropout, wrote his writ of habeas corpus. That writ, handwritten on prison stationary, eventually made its way to the United States Supreme Court. As we go about our job, we must always remember what Justice Black wrote in his opinion - ‘lawyers in criminal courts are necessities, not luxuries,’ and strive to provide the best representation possible to those the government accuses of a crime.”

The right to an attorney we enjoy today came about because of a poor man who had to defend himself against charges in Florida. Clarence Gideon’s personal pursuit of justice now protects all who are accused of a crime here in the United States. 60 years later, we celebrate and remember his struggle to have an attorney by his side, fighting to protect him and his rights.

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Gideon’s Day 60th Anniversary Celebration is March 18, 2023