Well Read

WELL READ By: Dillon E. Zinser

Law Office of Joshua S. Reed

CLARENCE GIDEON: THE PRO SE PETITIONER THAT CHANGED THE UNITED STATES

In deciding which book I wanted to review for the Well Read column, the case of Gideon v. Wainwright was already on my mind. March 18th marked the fifty-ninth anniversary of the 1963 landmark United States Supreme Court decision, which held that the Constitution requires U.S. states to provide attorneys to criminal defendants who cannot afford counsel. In seeking to observe the anniversary of Gideon, I remembered that the book Gideon’s Trumpet by Anthony Lewis was sitting on a bookshelf in our office. I reasoned to myself that now, more than ever, would be an opportune moment to read and reflect upon the story of Mr. Gideon’s case.

Gideon’s Trumpet was published in 1964: a mere year after the Gideon decision came down from the U.S. Supreme Court. For the most part, the book is structured through a chronological narrative, walking the readers through the story of Mr. Gideon’s case from start to finish. The story begins with the U.S. Supreme Court clerks receiving a large envelope containing Mr. Gideon’s pro se, handwritten petition for cert. The narrative proceeds to detail Mr. Gideon’s case being placed on the Supreme Court’s docket, and continues to through the penultimate moments in which the Supreme Court hears oral argument and issues its ruling. There are a few chapters interspersed within the chronological narrative, which explore the existing legal precedents surrounding the right to counsel for indigent defendants prior to the Supreme Court’s decision in Gideon.

Before appealing his case to the United States Supreme Court, Clarence Gideon was convicted of burglary by a jury in Florida. Before his trial began, Mr. Gideon requested that the court appoint him an attorney to assist in his defense. Under applicable Florida law in 1961, an indigent defendant was only entitled to appointed counsel if they were charged with a capital offense. The trial judge denied Mr. Gideon’s request, and he was forced to proceed at trial without an attorney. Many excerpts from the transcript of Mr. Gideon’s original trial in Florida are included in the book. These trial transcripts serve as a fascinating, yet disheartening insight into how the American criminal justice operated prior to the Gideon holding. The trial judge in Mr. Gideon’s original case certainly made efforts to ensure he received a fair trial as a pro se defendant. However, there were some basic legal maneuvers during the trial that Mr. Gideon simply could not accomplish on his own, such as cross-examining the State’s witness, or introducing items into evidence. Anyone who has practiced law understands the extreme disadvantage a pro se defendant like Mr. Gideon would face, especially in a criminal trial.

While Mr. Gideon did not have the assistance of counsel during his original trial, he was appointed an attorney to assist him in the preparation and submission of his brief to the U.S. Supreme Court. The attorney appointed to assist Mr. Gideon at the U.S. Supreme Court level was Abe Fortas, who later served as an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1965 to 1969. A compelling moment in the story is when Abe Fortas is first appointed to represent Mr. Gideon. The reader learns that Abe Fortas was a prominent corporate lawyer at the time of Gideon, and that he had acquired tremendous wealth and status in such practice. However, while not his primary area of practice, Abe Fortas was moved by Mr. Gideon’s tribulations, and wanted to help better the criminal justice system across the United States. To learn more about his new client, Abe Fortas engages Mr. Gideon in letter correspondence. Many of those letters are included verbatim within the book. After reading the letters that Mr. Gideon wrote to Abe Fortas, I felt a connection with Mr. Gideon, as if I knew him personally. The rapport and the relationship between Mr. Gideon and Abe Fortas is the type of connection I aspire to build with my own clients.

Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a unanimous decision in favor of Mr. Gideon. With the new legal holding in place, Mr. Gideon was granted a new trial in Florida, but this time, with the assistance of an attorney. And guess what? With the assistance of an attorney, Mr. Gideon was acquitted of the burglary charge!

There are many lessons from Gideon’s Trumpet that attorneys can apply to their own areas of practice.

First, attorneys must never forget the importance of taking initiative. What would have happened if Mr. Gideon had not taken the all-important first step of filing his petition to the U.S. Supreme Court? There is no doubt in my mind that the process was intimidating for Mr. Gideon, but he stood strong in his resolve, and made that necessary first step. As a criminal defense attorney myself, I sometimes feel doubt about what I can achieve for a particular defendant in court. But when you’re backed into a corner, all you can do is “file the motion”, and fight for what you believe is right, just like Mr. Gideon did.

Second, attorneys must never forget that our positions allow us an extraordinary opportunity to help and serve people in need. In Mr. Gideon’s case, Abe Fortas could have easily ignored the opportunity to help a destitute man accused of burglary. Indeed, Abe Fortas could have been content to simply continue has usual corporate practice, and reap the financial benefits of that work. But Abe Fortas did not do that: he rose to the occasion, and protected the liberty of Mr. Gideon, as well as the liberty of all criminal defendants who came after. Similarly, we as attorneys should embody the same sense of duty in helping those who are otherwise deprived of access to justice.